Ethics of Commodified (Golden) Citizenship

Abstract

The concept of citizenship has changed dramatically since the term was first used in ancient Greece. Recent citizenship debates have focused on the implications of commodified citizenship and growth of the “golden visa” market as these new schemes raise ethical and constitutional concerns. Paid-for citizenship schemes undermine the traditional notion of citizenship often marked by solidarity, rights and duties. Paid-for citizenship contradicts contemporary citizenship’s essential principle of equality. Therefore, the core challenge for Turkey and other countries offering paid-for citizenship is the unethical implications of distinguishing refugee/immigrant populations by financial capability in acquiring citizenship. While Turkey does not grant full-fledged refugee status to non-European people and limit duration of their stay in Turkey, Citizenship by Investment programmes offer the rich people –including non-Europeans- an opportunity to acquire Turkish citizenship. So, the new citizenship programme in Turkey is paving the way for discrimination based on the socioeconomic status of individuals. What’s more, this actually tends to push the citizenship concept into a narrow understanding despite the expansion of the modern citizenship concept towards more inclusive rights reaching beyond the boundaries of nation states. Taking this into account, this paper aims to illustrate the discrepancies between paid- for citizenship and refugee policies by highlighting the ethical questions arising from citizenship by investment programmes in Turkey.

Keywords

• Citizenship for sale
• commodified citizenship
• golden visas
• ethics of citizenship

Metalaşan (Altın) Vatandaşlığın Etik Boyutu

Abstract

Vatandaşlık kavramı ilk kez Antik Yunan’da kullanılmasından bu yana oldukça değişmiştir. Bugün gelinen noktada vatandaşlık tartışmalarına satılık vatandaşlık ya da altın vatandaşlık olarak tanımlanabilecek yeni tartışmalar eklenmiş, böylece kavramla ilgili etik kaygılar da ortaya çıkmıştır. Satılık vatandaşlık, dayanışma, haklar ve ödevler gibi vatandaşlık kavramının işaret ettiği geleneksel değerleri zedelemektedir. Dahası , vatandaşlığın özünde yer alan eşitlik ilkesi ile de çelişmektedir. Türkiye ve diğer ülkelerinde konu ile ilgili önlerine çıkan başlıca çatışma unsuru göçmen/mülteci gruplarını, vatandaşlık elde etme konusunda finansal yeterlilikleri doğrultusunda değerlendirmenin yol açtığı etik olmayan durumdur. Türkiye Avrupa dışından gelenlere tam bir mülteci statüsü vermemekte, ülkede kalışlarını sınırlamaktadır. Öte yandan, yatırım yolu ile vatandaşlık yolu - Avrupa dışından gelenler dahil- herkese açıktır. Bu durum, vatandaşlık politiklarında sosyoekonomik bir ayrımcılığa yol açmaktadır. Ayrıca, ulus devlet sınırları ötesinde, daha kapsayıcı hakları dahil eden modern vatandaşlık kavramına karşın, daha dar bir vatandaşlık anlayışını da ortaya çıkarmaktadır. Çalışmamız, yatırım yoluyla vatandaşlık ile beraber, satılık vatandaşlık ve mülteci politikaları arasındaki uyuşmazlığı ele almakta ve bu uyuşmazlığın yol açtığı etik olmayan durumu ortaya koymaktadır.

Keywords

• Satılık vatandaşlık
• meta vatandaşlık
• altın vize
• vatandaşlığın etiği

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