Abstract
This chapter looks at the interests and strategies of states, companies and individuals as key actors in the global market for citizenship. The chapter first looks at the global race for wealth, arguing that global mobility of people and capital offers a structure of opportunity for states to develop policies targeting the wealthy. It then analyses how private companies engage in standard-setting and building a global regulatory framework for investment-based citizenship. The chapter examines the profile of beneficiaries of ius pecuniae and identifies patterns of interests that such individuals might have in obtaining status on grounds of investment. By doing so, it also reflects on the problematic aspects of such a market for citizenship (e.g. corruption), and their manifestations in domestic politics and international relations.
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Notes
- 1.
For the purposes of this book, ‘wealth’ is defined as the sum of financial assets and other property, minus any debts, owned by an individual, a company, state or international organisation.
- 2.
Milanović’s argument does not entail predictions about migration. However, we can infer that for the wealthy from egalitarian states, moving to less egalitarian ones may prove detrimental as their opportunities for economic growth may be constrained by structural limitations and captured states. Equally, the wealthy from less egalitarian societies the move to the more egalitarian one would not be able to benefit from sources and networks that they have used to accumulate wealth. This view supports the argument about the sale of passports that operates as a ‘luxury market’ and creates ‘long-distance citizens’.
- 3.
Similar dynamics are at play with the ‘path-to-citizenship’ options, which are under the broad umbrella of investment-based migration despite not being an outright exchange between the passport and financial disbursement.
- 4.
Personal interview with a representative of an international intermediary, May 2015.
- 5.
The programme in the Commonwealth of Dominica has been redesigned by an intermediary company. See Chapter 4 for further details.
- 6.
The exact percentage that the concessionaire receives is stipulated in Article 6 of the Amendment to the Public Service Contract between the Government of Malta and Henley and Partners Holdings PLC. The full text of this provision is not publicly available. On top of this, the concessionaire retains 4% of the €150,000 contribution per applicant (Article 1.1.6. of the original contract).
- 7.
Confidential interview, October 2018.
- 8.
An individual may lose their citizenship by withdrawal, ex lege or renounce it voluntarily. In such cases, should they wish to regain it, re-acquisition of previous citizenship procedures would apply and there would be no need for investors to ‘repurchase’ citizenship.
- 9.
Personal correspondence with an international research team, May 2018.
- 10.
See details in Chapter 6.
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Džankić, J. (2019). ‘Long-Distance Citizens’: Strategies and Interests of States, Companies and Individuals in the Global Race for Wealth. In: The Global Market for Investor Citizenship. Politics of Citizenship and Migration. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17632-7_5
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