Humanosity says…Selling citizenship is now big business and the practice calls into question traditional views of who is and isn’t considered to be a citizen. If citizenship can be bought what value does it hold?
You can be born into it, you can earn it, and you can lose it. Increasingly, you can also invest your way into it.
The “it” is the citizenship of a particular country, and it is a more fluid concept than ever before. Go back 50 years, and it was uncommon for countries to allow dual citizenship, but it is now almost universal.
More than half of the world’s nations now have citizenship-through-investment programmes. According to one expert, Swiss lawyer Christian Kalin, it is now a global industry worth $25bn (£20bn) a year.
Mr Kalin, who has been dubbed “Mr Passport”, is the chairman of Henley & Partners, one of the world’s biggest players in this rapidly growing market. His global business helps wealthy individuals and their families acquire residency or citizenship in other countries.
He says that our traditional notions of citizenship are “outdated”. “This is one of the few things left in the world that is tied to bloodlines, or where you are born,” he says. He argues that a rethink is very much due.
“It’s super unfair,” he says, explaining that where we are born is by no means down to our own skill or talent, but instead “pure luck”. “What is wrong with regarding citizenship like a membership,” he adds. “And what is wrong with admitting talented people who will contribute?”
There are those who support his argument. But for many, the idea that passports, so tied to identity, are in some way a commodity, doesn’t sit well.
We followed the citizenship trail to the tiny Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. Since the country introduced its new citizenship scheme four years ago, it’s seen an explosion of interest. Passports now provide the biggest source of its government’s revenues.
For many aspirational Vanuatu-passport holders, the biggest draw is visa-free travel throughout Europe.
Most foreign recipients of Vanuatu passports never even step foot in the country. Instead, they apply for their citizenship in offices overseas, like the licensed Vanuatu citizenship broker PRG Consulting, based in Hong Kong….
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