'Free' movement

The 4 great freedoms of the EU, that are so crucial and so indissolubly bound to the liberal connotations of 'Europe' include freedom of movement of people, perhaps the most 'liberating' of all for many Remainers (and, happliy, a major factor in easy tourist travel and the legendary cheap strawberries, this blog, passim).

I have always thought of Marx's sarcastic remark about the 'freedom of movement' the Scots crofters experienced in the C18 and C19 when they were 'liberated' from old feudal customs by the HIghlands Clearances. They were now 'free' to 'choose' to go to the slums of Glasgow, work in a sweatshop or starve on the streets. Or pack up and emigrate to the colonies, of course -- cross-border freedom of travel.

An article in the Grudina today by H Moir points to another dimension -- the wealthy can buy EU citizenship, in effect, and enjoy their version of freedom of movement, including freely dodging across national jurisdictions to escape tax and the law. They can buy all sorts of other citizenships too.They do this by investing various amounts in the country concerned.

The Cypriot government has raised more than €4bn since 2013 by providing citizenship to the global super-rich, giving them the ability to live and work throughout the EU in exchange for a cash investment. We know that among those who have availed themselves of this right are billionaire Russian oligarchs and Ukrainians accused of corruption. For the financially well-endowed, the deal is a bit of a steal: the Cypriots merely ask for €2m in property or €2.5m in company or government bonds....All we [Brits] ask is for a £2m investment. You can buy citizenship in Greece for €250,000, while Portugal’s “golden visa” scheme lets non-EU citizens gain full residency and unfettered travel rights across the 28 EU nations by spending €500,000 on a Portuguese property.

Other countries, like Grenada will do you a deal too, so you can enjoy reciprocal rights with lots of other countries. As a good liberal, Moir reminds us there are definite economic advantages in attracting inward investment, of course. Inhabitants of London, well used to such 'free movement'  might well also speak of things like the upwards pressure on housing and demands for services from having dodgy oligarchs roaming the streets.

Moir extends the analysis to make a point about ideology too: 

The very rich, the high net-worthers, don’t just see themselves as opportunists using their fortunes to gain themselves maximum flexibility. They see themselves as nomads for whom borders and nationality have little significance...In 2015, when complaints about our offer to high net-worthers led the British government to tighten diligence checks on who was applying and make it more difficult for them to plough funds into property for their own rather than societal advantage, applications plummeted. 

He ends the piece with this welcome note of realism amid the romance about moving about freely as a citizen of the world: 
 

Be wary of high net-worthers’ romantic notion of a world without borders. The benefits aren’t mutual, and the super-rich don’t like too many questions asked.