Quality of Nationality mapped

On Wednesday 20 September Prof. Dimitry Kochenov launched the second edition of the Quality of Nationality Index (QNI) he publishes in co-operation with Henley and Partners, a leading global citizenship and residence law firm. The launch, which took place at Tate Modern in London, attracted a number of leading practitioners and reporters covering the investment migration field.

The QNI measures the quality of all the nationalities in the world and puts German citizenship on top, while Afghani nationality performs the worst. The Netherlands end within the top ten, listed on the eighth place. This research has been widely reported, with more than 2000 publications covering the index. Among the most notable stories are the articles in: The Daily Mail, Die Welt and Kommersant Daily.

Interested in the quality of nationalities abroad? The data of the QNI is visualized online at www.nationalityindex.org. According to Kochenov, the site is meant for people who consider changing their nationality and that are interested in the quality of their future passport. The index, designed by Kochenov together with Dr Chris Kälin of Henley and Partners, has been edited this year with the help of Justin Lindeboom, a colleague at the European and Economic Law Department and Elena Basheska, a former PhD student.

Quality of British citizenship under pressure due to Brexit

Kochenov: ‘Unlike previous research which has always been comparing states, not nationalities, together with Henley and Partners I measure the quality of nationalities.’ The results contained a number of surprises: ‘There are huge differences between the nationalities that perform the best and the worst, which seem almost impossible to bridge. The QNI also shows that the economic performance of a country does not necessarily result in higher quality citizenship. Colombia is a strong climber – it’s shot up 48 places on the list. The QNI also shows why this is happening.’

According to Kochenov, the quality of British citizenship is under pressure due to the approaching Brexit. ‘With a “hard” Brexit, the quality of a British passport will plunge as many of the rights that the British currently hold as EU citizens, for example the right to work and live in any of the 27 member states, will terminate. You can only see comparable falls for nationalities like the Syrian or Libyan, which can be accounted for by the war situation. However, those nationalities usually already hold relatively low positions on the list.’

More information
Interview with Kochenov by Investment Migration Insider