Investment Residence and the Concept of Residence in EU Law: Interactions, Tensions, and Opportunities – IMC-RP 2017/1

Abstract

Immigration regimes around the world are increasingly tailored to attract highly desired individuals. A number of Member States have offered preferential access to the ultrarich. Certain Member States have tried to attract high net-worth individuals by offering them privileged residence rather than citizenship. This paper examines investment residence from the perspective of EU law and examines what benefits under EU law are available to persons
who have acquired residence through investment. Do residence regimes raise the same issues, again from an EU perspective, as those schemes which offer citizenship in exchange for money? Contrary to what has been suggested by certain law firms, this paper explains that the EU rights investors in residence are able to benefit from are relatively modest.

Martijn van den Brink is PhD Researcher at the European University Institute, Florence.
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