Atractivos socioculturales de la ciudad.
“TRADICION PILONGA”
Guild rightly underlines the paradox regarding the notion of a genuine link in the context of nationality.60 The concept of a genuine link may help determine who can be loyal to a state which would bestow citizenship, and who can become a societal and economic participant in the polity, rather than switch allegiance to another society and state. Conversely, the sole deference to a state’s competence and emphasis on a genuine link in citizenship regulations can lead the government to misuse this competence in order to exclude certain groups of people, which will raise a discrimination issue. Therefore, among the criticisms against such a type of citizenship schemes, the argument of a genuine link is pregnable given the room for abuse. Therefore, in addition to examining the schemes with theoretical approaches, it may need to divert the angle to justifying citizenship-by-investment schemes on economic grounds. This is because the introduction of the schemes is motivated by the need of foreign capital due to the chronic lack of domestic resources. This signifies that practical necessity underlies the citizenship-by-investment schemes. Although globalisation has contributed to bringing about a paradigm shift in the realm of citizenship and nationality with the idea that citizenship can be in the category of commodity,61 the emergence of citizenship-by-investment schemes does not solely stem from such a shift. Instead, citizenship-by-investment schemes originated from a pragmatic approach. Despite restructuring of economic policies such as privatisation and conclusion of trade and investment agreements with other countries, many countries failed to attract sufficient economic resources so as to innovate their strategic industries, diversify industries and foster economic development.62 This tendency becomes more evident in the case of developing countries which are heavily reliant on
59 Ibid.
60 Guild, 2004, supra note 26, pp. 68-81. 61 Džankić, 2015, supra note 2, p. 20.
62 S. Lall and R. Narula, ‘Foreign Direct Investment and its Role in Economic Development: Do we
135 one main industry, especially an agricultural sector. Moreover, the financial crisis left many countries with deteriorated financial system, which has not fully recovered. Among countries severely damaged by the financial crisis, the ones heavily reliant on foreign investment and specific volatile industries found it more difficult to recover from the crisis.
Most of the citizenship-by-investment schemes have the tendency of requiring foreign investors to make a contribution to national fund foundations. Those funds are used to protect public interest and develop infrastructure, including enhancement of education, research and development, innovation, employment plans, the environment and public health.63 In addition to the national funds, some citizenship-by-investment initiatives require applicants to make an investment in government stocks, bonds and debentures with aiming at financial recovery. Although the types of investment or government bonds/funds will differ depending on the country, the funds for the sake of public interest and infrastructure and investment in government bonds are imperative for economic development and recovery from the economic and financial crisis. Therefore, the approach which only focuses on the theoretical legitimacy underlining a genuine link will lead to overlooking the practical benefits of foreign capital to host states.
However, one of the leading practical reasons why this type of schemes is criticised is due to national security concerns. There has always been security concern regarding granting citizenship to foreigners. Particularly, citizenship-by-investment schemes create not only domestic national security concerns, but also potential national security risks to other countries. While national security issues exist in this context, the programmes may have been built on the premise that a wealthy foreign investor who undergoes a due diligence process is less likely to be a threat to national security. Yet, even after a due diligence process, the possibility of a naturalised person becoming a threat to national security still remains. Once applicants become naturalised, they shall be treated in the same way as other citizens. Such equal treatment is important to provide security and assurance for the status of citizenship given under such a programme and to prevent any room for arbitrary measures. However, citizens
63 Article 13 of L.N. 47 of 2014, Maltese Citizenship Act (CAP.188), Individual Investor Programme
136 naturalised under the programmes are subjected to more scrutiny on account of a potential shift in diplomatic relations and the possibility of illicit financial activities depending on future circumstance. Moreover, countries, especially the US and Canada, are concerned about the visa-free travelling agreement which allows nationals to travel to other contracting countries without a visa. This security concern is augmented in the case of EU Member States. To understand a potential security concern which can be caused by a citizenship-by-investment scheme, the following section will examine national security in citizenship-by-investment schemes.