Elite Mobility: Investment Migration in the Middle East

Introduction

People from the Middle East make up a large share of the clients in this market, and several Middle Eastern countries have lately adopted investment migration programs to attract the foreign wealthy.
Investment migration programs are important to study since they express an instrumental, neoliberal understanding of citizenship. They reorient the role and function of the state, andthereby contribute to global inequality.

Research Questions

The project advances knowledge on how investment migration programs reshape the role of the state in the Middle East through processes of privatization, communication, and global hierarchization.

• What is the role of private companies in the investment migration industry in the Middle East?
• How does investment migration reconfigure logics of belonging in the region, by means of public communication and reception?
• How do states use investment migration to influence their position in the global legal economic order?

Theory

The project draws on, and contributes to, several theoretical literatures:

• Neoliberal state, where investment migration represents a distinct form of privileged mobility because it commodifies citizenship and belonging.
• Theories of the power of business actors and the role of intermediaries
• Cultural-political theories on neoliberalism and belonging in the Middle East
• Theories on the global hierarchies of citizenship

Empirical Focus

WP 1 provides a mapping/comparison of all the region’s investment migration programs, plus a comparative case study of the role of the industry in three different country programs.

WP 2 focuses on the UAE as a case study and analyses government communication of the programs, its reception among Emirati citizens, the role of influencers and uses of digital media.

WP 3 focuses on the strategies pursued by states in the Middle East in adopting and implementing investment migration programs.

Expected Outcomes

We expect the project to contribute in several ways: Empirically, by constructing several original data collections, theoretically by advancing debates on investment migration be centering on the role of the state in the Middle East, and methodologically by its multi-perspective design that offers a comprehensive way of studying investment migration in the region.