What does 4K think about charging for citizenship?

Should We Sell Citizenship?
Gary Becker thinks so: Elsewhere (see my monograph, " The Challenge of Immigration: A Radical Solution ", 2011) I use as an illustration a price of $50,000. I show that such a price would attract young, skilled, and ambitious men and women since ... andrewsullivan.com
Posted by Sir Four at 11:06am May 7 '13
You must sign in to send Sir Four a message

Above, I linked a summary of the argument. In brief:

I use as an illustration a price of $50,000. I show that such a price would attract young, skilled, and ambitious men and women since they would gain the most from coming here. … A loan program analogous to the student loan program would lend money to poorer but ambitious immigrants, so that they are not kept out by the cost of entry.

I can see the advantages. US citizenship (and this would be similar for Canada, UK, etc as well) is desirable for many. By enacting a fee, you not only create a new revenue stream for government funding, but you select for those individuals who would, by necessity, be net producers--either because they are independently wealthy and would thus bring their wealth locally, or because they'll seek a return on the $50,000 they spent acquiring citizenship. The link suggests it'll attract the "young, skilled and ambitious", which seems rather likely.

There's an obvious downside, in that it's not "fair"--particularly to those coming from poverty. The suggestion is that there'd be a loan program for such individuals, which isn't a bad idea. A type of scholarship program could improve the situation further.

Another objection would be purely on principle--that citizenship shouldn't be commodified in this way. I'm interested in what you all think.


There are 17 private posts in this thread. You need to sign in to read them.

Below are the public posts you may view:

You currently have read-only access to this board. You must request an account to join the conversation.

Why Join 4thKingdom?

Note that there are no ads here. Just intelligent and friendly conversation. We keep the spam out, the trolls out, the advertisers out… 4K is just a low-key, old-fashioned site with members from around the world.
This community began in 1998, and we continue to accept new members today.

Hot Discussion Topics: