IF
A baby is born in a rich country, she will have a longer, healthier
life with more economic opportunities than one born in a poor,
conflict-ridden nation. But quantifying the value of a person’s
nationality compared with another is tricky. The number of countries
that a person can travel to or settle in without bureaucratic
restrictions may be one indicator, but the appeal of those countries is
just as important. Russian nationals can travel to over 100 countries
without a visa, for instance, but none are rich economies. Similarly the
size of an economy may be a large factor, but it does not account for
settlement opportunities elsewhere. Americans benefit from living in the
world’s largest economy yet they can settle in only a handful of
smaller economies. An inaugural “quality of nationality index”
(QNI) by Henley & Partners, a consultancy, attempts to do just that
by looking at the value of citizenship on two counts:to a person
living in the country (the internal value) and the ability to live or
work elsewhere (the external value). The internal value combines a
nation’s economic heft, its score on the UN’s human development index,
and its peacefulness and stability. The external value measures the
number of countries that a citizen may travel to and settle in, and the
weight of those in terms of economic strength and stability.
In
2015 all of the top 32 spots were European, boosted by economic
integration and the right to free movement and work. Germany’s position
at the top reflects its stability, economic strength and the ability of
its citizens to travel and work in strong and stable economies
elsewhere. The United States ranks behind European Union states for two
reasons: a lower score on peacefulness (measured on the Global Peace Index),
due to its nuclear arsenal and involvement in armed conflicts, and a
low score on settlement freedom. And as Britons prepare to vote on
whether to leave the European Union on June 23rd, another filip to the
Remain campaigners. Dimitry Kochenov, creator of the index, calculates
that Britain would fall from 11th to 30th in the ranking were it to
leave, placing it behind Japan.
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