Trading citizenship

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

They come to Europe in search of a better life and more freedom, just like most refugees and/or economic/political immigrants. But they do not arrive in broken boats at the shores of Lampedusa along with the rest of the hordes of miserable refugees who dwell in total squalor. No, these guys fly in business class of the best air companies, and thus they land in places like Malta, Lisbon or Andalucia. They're not poor by any standard, just on the contrary. They're the millionaires from non-European countries who want to share the privilege of any EU citizen to be able to move freely across Europe.

There've been such programs in Europe for quite a while, allowing such wealthy (and generous) foreign investors to obtain a EU passport pretty fast. UK was among the first European countries to grant citizenship to wealthy people from third countries. And since 2012, there's been a real race across Europe for attracting rich people from all around the world. A number of countries are trying to entice the "wealthy aliens" with increasingly attractive offers at the so called "nationality market".

Of course, there's a distinction between the "golden visa" where we're talking of a immigration program for investors that allows an easier procedure for wealthy citizens of third countries, and the so called "citizenship for sale" where we're talking of mere selling of citizenship. Last year for example, the Maltese government launched a new legislative initiative, dubbed "individual investor program", which is essentially a loophole backdoor that anyone could use to bypass the common immigration rules, as long as they have enough money.

In Malta's case, first the opposition cried foul, and then the European Commission. Viviane Reding, the EU commissioner of justice was compelled to enter explanation mode, stating that there should be a "real connection" between the country of origin and the applicant, before any citizenship has been granted. After all, the local law requires that the immigrant should have lived at least a year in Malta before being granted citizenship.

Nowadays, Malta is not a separate case. Portugal, Spain, Cyprus and Bulgaria have also introduced similar programs. In Spain and Portugal these are called "golden visa". In Portugal you need to have bought real estate worth 500,000 euros at least, and it's enough to have lived there for just one week during the first year, and two weeks during the second year of the visa, in order to get a right of indefinite residence (the whole procedure takes 5 years). In 6 years, the wealthy investors in Portugal can apply for citizenship. After they get their Portuguese passport, they can then proceed to invest their capitals wherever they please.

Another option for getting Portuguese citizenship is to transfer 1 million euros into any Portuguese bank, or to establish a local firm with at least 30 employees (even if fictitious). This rule has a serious flaw, because so far there hasn't been even one application for golden visa that's based on investment and has created real jobs in the country. It's notable that suddenly citizenship has got a price, and remains an exceptional prerogative for wealthy citizens of third countries. This way the less fortunate people remain discriminated against.

Portugal has started issuing golden visas in 2012. The country was severely affected by the crisis, which forced it to request protection from the EU rescue funds. This year Portugal has finally left the cosy shade of the European financial umbrella, and in the meantime the local estates market has registered a positive impact from the visa program. Last year Portugal has issued more than 500 golden visas, and their number has skyrocketed this year. Right now, the big fad is the Asian market - most applications come from there: China, Vietnam, etc.

For those who cannot afford the expensive privilege, the broken boats remain waiting at the African coast, with all the risks involved. Wouldn't be such a surprise if the paths of the wealthy and the poor immigrants (who survive the trip) cross somewhere around Europe. Perhaps the luxurious mansions of the rich foreign investors in Malta, Portugal and Spain will be built by guest workers from those very regions where the feudals came from as well. Thus, the circle will be complete: they'll both have started from the same spot, and will end up in the same place, but now on two entirely different planes of existence. And the feudal relations that existed in their countries of origin (and which many of those people had tried to flee from) will be perpetuated.

Comments

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Well, in our defense, giving EU passports in exchange for some cash is one of the very few sources of income for our poor little country. (sniff) (sob)

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

The US also has a "citizenship by investment" EB-5 visa program, minimum is 500k USD, actually cheaper than most EU countries (in the Netherlands apparently they expect an investment of minimum 1.25m EUR). I suspect that for most rich people who want to be residents it's much easier/cheaper/faster to get some domestic partnership papers. And I also know that in the NL you can get residence just with a corporation (25k EUR capital requirement), so it's actually pretty cheap if someone is doing it for business purposes. Although in all of the official EU programmes I see that the passport could take up to 5 years, except for Cyprus and Malta where you can get your passport right away. A lot of tax fugitives from the UK and other EU countries do this move to Malta thing where they still get an EU passport and evade home country taxes on recent or ongoing gains. A cheap alternative for a recent millionaire would be to deposit the cash in a swiss bank private account, buy a yacht for a couple of hundred K and hang out near the mediterranean/adriatic shore cities as long as they like to.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Many countries are doing it, but Malta is really pushing this scheme very hard. Hoping to fill the gaps in their budget, apparently.