German passports rule, OK
By Kirsten Hastings, 14 Sep 17
German nationality is the most desirable and the highly ranked UK is about to dramatically slump according to the Henley & Partners – Kochenov Quality of Nationality Index (QNI).
The QNI ranks the value of every nationality of the world in terms of how open it is for business and its quality of life It’s a gauge of the opportunities and limitations that nationalities impose on people.
It looks at both the quality of life within an indivdual’s home country and the external value of other nationalities, which includes the diversity and quality of opportunities indivudal can pursue outside their country of origin.
Consistently securing the top spot for the last six years, Germany scored 82.7% out of a possible 100% on the index.
The global mean in 2016 was 39.32%, with Afghanistan sitting at the bottom of the index with a score of 14.6%.
Following closely behind Germany are France and Denmark who share second place on the index with a score of 82.4%. Iceland ranks third overall at 81.3%.
The UK also made it into the extremely high category on the index, just missing out on a ‘Top 10’ place by coming 12th with a score of 79.2%.
The US, meanwhile, ranked only 29th on the QNI with a score of 68.8% because of its relatively low “settlement freedom” compared to nationalities of the EU member states, and its weak showing on the peace and stability element of the index.
The index also maps a hard Brexit nationality quality which is predicted to go into “free fall”.
Dimitry Kochenov, a leading constitutional law professor who specialises in European and comparative citizenship law, said:
“there is no direct correlation between the power of the state and the quality of its nationality. Nationality plays a significant part in determining our opportunities and aspirations, and the QNI allows us to analyse this objectively.”
The QNI index uses a wide variety of quantifiable data to determine the opportunities and limitations that nationalities impose on us.
The QNI measures both the internal value of nationality — the quality of life and opportunities for personal growth within a nationality’s country of origin — and the external value of nationality — which identifies the diversity and quality of opportunities that nationalities allow us to pursue outside our country of origin. The index is not a perception index.
According to Kochenov, before the launch of the QNI no single, credible source existed that ranked the nationalities of the world.
This is the second edition of the QNI — which represents the status quo as on 10 October 2016 — reflects the quality of all the world’s nationalities.
It also includes a number of new nationality and status entries, such as Israeli laissez-passer, South Sudan, and eight British nationalities/statuses.
The methodology has also been updated to include territories such as Dutch and French overseas territories, US territories, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands as settlement destinations.
This second edition of the QNI also interrogates the quality of a post ‘hard Brexit’ British nationality, comparing it to its current status.
According to Kochenov, a hard Brexit could leave the UK with a nationality quality in a “free fall in terms of its quality, losing its value very sharply and by far exceeding the losses experienced by the countries in the midst of bitter political and armed conflicts”.
“The UK is about to establish a world record in terms of profoundly undermining the quality of its nationality without going through any violent conflict, falling from the elite group of Extremely High Quality nationalities to the Very High Quality group, changing its neighbours in the ranking from the likes of Switzerland and Germany to the likes of Brazil and Romania.
The moral is simple: EU citizenship is an extremely valuable resource and getting rid of it — crippling citizens’ horizon of opportunities — should not be taken lightly,” he concluded.
Christian Kälin, a leading specialist on international immigration and citizenship law and policy, and Group Chairman of Henley & Partners, a residence and citizenship planning business, said: “The QNI provides an empowering perspective that serves to help individuals.
She added it helps in making important decsions on where to live and raise a family, do business, and enjoy a satisfying global lifestyle, in order to define their future.
“The QNI… provides assistance in selecting the most valuable second or third nationality. Over the last decade there has been a growing trend amongst wealthy and talented individuals to build up a citizenship portfolio to ensure greater international opportunity, stability, freedom and security for themselves and their families.”