Jelena Džankić discusses her recent monograph,The Global Market for Investor Citizenship, in which she looks at the growing practice of the sale of passports around the world through the lenses of political science. She maps the historical relationship between citizenship, money and property; discusses normative arguments that support and counter the practice of the sale of citizenship; and examines the interests and strategies of the different actors — states, companies, individuals — that constitute the ‘supply’ and ‘demand’ sides of the burgeoning citizenship industry. The book highlights the tension between citizenship policies aimed at immigrant integration and those that create ‘long-distance’ or strategic citizens. It raises important and timely questions on national identities and global inequalities, focusing on the new forms that they assume in an emergent regime of flexible, instrumental and commodified citizenship.

Jelena Džankić is the coordinator of the Global Citizenship Observatory (GLOBALCIT) at the European University Institute. She holds a PhD in international studies from the University of Cambridge (New Hall College). Her expertise is in the area of citizenship policy and, in particular of investor citizenship programmes. The Global Market for Investor Citizenship is her second monograph.