EU citizenship for sale
presseurop.eu
presseurop.eu
We'll really fix this though when the circumstances of your birth don't dictate where you are expected to live, work, or play.
If you want to work in London for a couple years, then Sri Lanka, then Albuquerque, then Beijing, you should be able to do it, so long as you can afford the cost of living and appropriate taxes for the area.
Sure, some do this now, but you should be able to do this as a mechanic from Ghana, not just as an international business manager from Vermont with a trust fund.
It would be nice to live in your Utopia.
...within a gated community that encloses those who pay the access fee.
While free roaming would be a net win for society, the currently advantaged part of society does not feel like sharing much.
There is no country on Earth that has unfettered access, and unconditional citizenship - rich or poor.
EDIT: Maybe I misinterpreted, your post reads like "the rich are preventing free movement". I want to point out that anyone who has a well-paid job is "advantaged", not just rich people.
https://www.rietumu.lv/en/residence-permit
As long as the money is kept in a term deposit, "upon expiry of the term of residence permit investors and their family members are eligible to apply for the renewal."
After some years one can apply for naturalization and gain full Latvian citizenship.
Direct cash-for-passport schemes for someone who's never lived in the country are much rarer. Afaik, in the EU currently, only Austria sort-of has one, and it's not explicit. Like many countries, Austria can grant special-case citizenship to people who've rendered extraordinary services to Austria, but unlike most other countries, this includes not only scientific achievement and the like, but also a handful of very rich people each year, who negotiate through intermediaries a grant of citizenship in return for either a large donation, or a large investment. Mainly people from Dubai and similar places, who don't want to move to the EU (and therefore can't use the residency schemes), but do want an EU passport for travel or future-proofing purposes. The price isn't disclosed, but rumors have it that it's a lot higher than €650k, more in the €2m+ range for donations or €10m+ for investments.
This looks like a win-win to me.
€650,000 can go towards education, social safety net programs, or a variety of other worthy causes, but the important thing is the feelings of rank nationalists who are upset that their precious citizenship cum identity is terribly diluted by being sold rather than being acquired by falling out of the right vagina. Because after all there is requirement that a natural born citizen participate in the "community".
I think it's already too late for that.
[1] http://super-economy.blogspot.com/2013/05/malmo-case-study-i...
That's not what the data really says. Think, how does the SCB know if people are working? Do they follow them around? No, they only know what people tell them. So what that data shows is that less than the majority of foreign born adults declare that they're working. Now I'm sure you can think of a few reasons why a poor immigrant would have to not declare that s/he's working.
I try and tell people, I'm a skilled software developer, what Germany needs right now. And when was the last time a Canadian showed up in Europe and started causing a problem? Immigration is tiered based firstly on country of origin and wealth, not on skills.
I find it a little bit offensive that EU residency is just one more thing the wealthy can now buy. But on the other hand it was inevitable and was already largely the case. For less than $650k if you have a good immigration lawyer.
Well, you could also be living in Pakistan or Somalia and apply for asylum which most likely will be granted to you with no money involved.
If you'll read up on currency theory, you'll find some people have proposed pretty much exactly this (Jane Jacobs comes to mind, probably in Cities and the Wealth of Nations, it's been a few decades since I've last read it).
More generally: with a sovereign currency, a country controls both its monetary and fiscal policy, and can make its own allocation decisions with both. Which means it can set monetary policy to benefit its industrial / manufacturing or other economic centers, and use fiscal policy to create wealth transfers to underdeveloped regions. This is effectively what happens in the United States, for example, through SSI, welfare, medicare, SNAP, and similar programs.
In the EU, you have a bifurcation of monetary policy (ECB) and fiscal policy (independent European states). This was pointed out by numerous early critics of the EMU, including rather notably Margaret Thatcher, in the late 1970s / early 1980s. Her comments then proved exceptionally prophetic.
If you have enough money you can buy your way into any country.
There is one difference though - U.S. is a country, so is Malta. But if you get citizenship of Malta you get citizenship of E.U. which means you can leave Malta behind and go to any country that is in E.U. Also, Visa is not really citizenship.
You'd (eventually) have to live in the US, and wait several years for the passport, so it's not quite a cash-on-the-counter transaction like Malta. But it is similar in concept
I guess the real problem is if this kicks off a "race to the bottom" among other cash-strapped EU members.
The idea that other EU countries will try to compete on price, to be honest intrigues me, as the outcomes might be unexpected. Probably EU will want regulate such thing.
(b) Lots of EU countries have (in some ways) liberal rules of citizenship.
* Ireland gives citizenship to anyone who's grandparent was Irish (even if you and both your parents have never set foot in Ireland).
* Bulgaria (EU) gives citzenship to Macedonians (non-EU).
* Romania (EU) gives citizenship to Moldovans (non-EU).
etc.
One, because wealthy people sometimes want 'dual citizenship' (which has to be kept a secret in the U.S.) because they feel like if things fall apart in one country, they can quickly escape to another.
Two, some business transactions require citizenship.
Three, some rights are only available with citizenship.
There are other reasons as well.
http://www.henleyglobal.com/countries/st-kitts-nevis/citizen...
Well that seems like it might not be worth all the trouble.
650K is a low price for EU citizenship because it's being subsidized by the richer EU nations. Malta citizenship would be a lot less attractive.