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Citizenship for Sale: The Implications of the Maltese Individual Investor Program for the European Union

Graham, Ian Gabriel
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Abstract
Beginning in 2014, the Republic of Malta has been operating a citizenship by investment program known as the Individual Investor Program. For a total contribution of just over one million Euros, anyone in the world, with a few exceptions, can buy Maltese citizenship. As Malta is a member of the European Union, this means that European citizenship is for sale, as are all the benefits that come with it, such as internal freedom of movement in the EU and visa-free travel to 183 countries worldwide. This raises a variety of ethical and legal concerns both for Malta and the EU. Consequently, the EU has published a variety of reports studying the possible effects that the selling of EU citizenship could have on the Union, such as the infiltration of organized crime groups into the Union, as well as the proliferation of money laundering, tax fraud, terrorist financing, and corruption, as well as the European Parliament in 2014 passing a resolution condemning the practice of putting citizenship up for sale. The above stated are issues Malta has left itself open to through its implementation of the program, which is highly opaque in its decision-making processes when it comes to who is accepted or denied and why, and the ways in which the money raised through the program are used. The sale of passports also raises the obvious ethical conundrum of whether citizenship should even be for sale in the first place. Ultimately, the answer to that question is no, because the act of selling citizenship for profit can lead to undermining the value of citizenship and can worsen inequality. Though the EU does not have the authority to end the practice of selling passports, it should continue to take a stand against the IIP and programs like it to ensure its continued safety and security.
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Thesis (B.A. in Political Science, Minor in Philosophy)--John Cabot University, Spring 2020.
Date
2020
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Keywords
Citizenship, Emigration and immigration, Government policy
Citation
Graham, Ian Gabriel. "Citizenship for Sale: The Implications of the Maltese Individual Investor Program for the European Union". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2020.
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