The project examines investment migration programmes that allow wealthy individuals to obtain citizenship or residence permits in exchange for investments. While people from the Middle East constitute a significant share of the global market for these programmes, several countries in the region have also introduced their own schemes to attract foreign investment.
During the seminar, Sara Kalm provided an overview of the investment migration industry and discussed how such programmes have expanded globally, particularly since the financial crisis of 2008–2009. She highlighted how citizenship and residence rights are increasingly being treated as assets that can be acquired through investment, raising important questions about citizenship, mobility and inequality.
The project investigates how investment migration programmes reshape the role of the state in the Middle East through three interconnected themes: privatisation, communication and global hierarchisation. The researchers will explore the role of private companies in the industry, the ways investment migration is communicated and received, and how states use these programmes to position themselves in the global legal and economic order.
The project is funded by the Strategic Research Area The Middle East in the Contemporary World (MECW) and aims to contribute new empirical, theoretical and methodological insights into investment migration in the Middle East.