Passport Power: Citizenship Markets and Passport Power in the Gulf

The Arab Gulf region has become a global epicenter for investor migration, with elite families—foreign residents and citizens alike—contributing to the surge in demand for citizenship-by-investment (CBI) and residency-by-investment (RBI), commonly referred to as “Golden Passport” and “Golden Visa” programs respectively. Drawing from a current book project, this talk examines why Gulf citizens and long-term residents are investing in foreign passports and visas, often without the intention to migrate.

 

Professor Lori argues that exclusionary citizenship and migration policies perpetuate legal precarity, fostering new markets for inclusion that both states and private firms are eager to capitalize upon. While the discussion will primarily focus on regionally specific factors driving demand for Golden passports and visas, it will also point to a global trend: states create barriers—through restrictive laws and border controls—and then charge individuals for the right to transcend them. Drawing upon ongoing research with families, investor migration firms, and diplomats, this talk will explore the complex interplay between wealth, legal status, and the way passports factor into the quest for security in an increasingly uncertain world.

 

Noora Lori is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University. Her research focuses on citizenship, migration and racial politics in the Middle East and in comparative perspective. Her book, Offshore Citizens: Permanent “Temporary” Status in the Gulf (Cambridge University Press 2019) received three book awards from the American Political Science Association and the International Studies Association. She has published in International Migration Review, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Journal of Global Security Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and International Relations (selections).  She was previously an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, a fellow at the International Security Program of the Harvard Kennedy School, and a visiting scholar at the Dubai School of Government. She received her PhD in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University in 2013.