Europe attracts these people with a better life and greater freedom. But they do not arrive on boats packed with other refugees; they come business class on elite airlines. And they are not greeted by a strict patrol off the coast of Lampedusa, but by smiling staff at the international airports of Malta, Portugal, or Spain. They are wealthy citizens of non-EU countries who want to live and work within the EU.
Programs for wealthy foreign investors that allow them to fast-track European passports have existed for a long time. The UK was one of the first in the EU to start issuing its passports to citizens of third countries. And since 2012, several European states have begun a real struggle for rich migrants, using prices and simplified citizenship procedures.
«Золотая виза»
As Katharina Eisele from the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) emphasized in an interview with DW, 'one must distinguish between a "golden visa," which is issued to investors participating in an immigration program and provides a simplified entry procedure for wealthy citizens from non-EU countries, and the so-called Citizenship for Sale program, which involves the purchase of citizenship.'
In 2013, the government of Malta proposed a bill, later approved by parliament, called the Individual Investor Program. This document allowed the purchase of Maltese citizenship for a certain amount. It did not require 'new' Maltese citizens to have resided on the island before obtaining the passport.
Other EU member states quickly reacted to this initiative. Their criticism of the Maltese government was that the innovation made it possible to circumvent the basic laws regulating immigration. The European Commission and the European Parliament were particularly harsh.
One and a half million euros for a visa
A real connection must already exist between the state and the individual, and only then can citizenship be granted, believes EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding. Therefore, according to EU law, during the period before obtaining citizenship, immigrants wishing to buy a Maltese passport will still have to spend at least 12 months in Malta.
Today, Malta is no longer an exception. It has been joined by Portugal, Spain, Cyprus, Latvia, Hungary, and Bulgaria. In Spain and Portugal, the program for those wishing to acquire citizenship of these countries is called the 'Golden Visa'. The price of such a visa, for example in Portugal, is the purchase of real estate worth at least one and a half million euros. But in order to obtain permanent residency after five years, the citizenship applicant must stay in the country for at least 7 days during the first year and 14 days during the second. Only after six years from the first visit does the investor have the right to apply for citizenship.
Entrepreneurship as a condition for obtaining citizenship
Another way to get a Portuguese passport is to transfer one million euros to an account in a local bank or open your own company with at least 30 jobs. However, this innovation is not particularly popular among potential investors. As the Spanish daily Publico reported in April 2014, at that time not a single application had been submitted for a 'golden visa' that would have involved a serious capital investment followed by the creation of new jobs.
Katharina Eisele particularly emphasizes the fact that citizenship suddenly has a price. However, this gives wealthy citizens of third countries a clear advantage over their fellow citizens. Thus, in her words, this is a clear case of discrimination against less affluent applicants.
Expensive visa as an anti-crisis strategy
Portugal's economy was hard hit by the eurozone crisis. Since 2011, the country had been under the tutelage of the European Stability Fund, from which it managed to emerge this year. And one of the reasons for its economic recovery, according to experts, is the 'Golden Visa' program introduced in October 2012. For example, in 2013, Lisbon issued 576 'golden visas' to those who own property in the country.
Only in the first six months of 2014, this number doubled, emphasized Vanessa Lima, a marketing employee of one of the leading real estate firms Portugal Property. 'At the moment, our attention is focused on Asia. A significant part of the requests comes from there,' Lima notes. According to her, the last business trip of the company's employees to Vietnam, where a presentation of real estate properties took place, ended with the signing of two contracts for the purchase of 'golden visas,' Lima reports.
Those who cannot afford such contracts can only accept it as a fact. And the likelihood that the paths of rich and poor immigrants nonetheless cross is not so illusory. After all, it is possible that the villas in Malta, Portugal, or Spain where foreign millionaire investors live were built by those migrants whose life in Europe began in Lampedusa.
Shora Azarnoush,
Yulia Alekseeva.