Can Investor Residence and Citizenship Programmes be a Policy Success?

Investor residence and citizenship programmes, which grant status to wealthy individuals in return for a financial investment, are a niche area of immigration policy. However, they punch above their weight when it comes to the capacity to generate controversy in public debates. Both the economics and politics of investor migration are complex and controversial. Despite the growing number of investor programmes operating in high-income countries, there is no consensus on what constitutes ‘good practice’. This chapter examines the question what makes for a successful investor programme, defining ‘success’ from both an economic and a political perspective. I argue that, perhaps even more than in other areas of migration policy, there is a conflict between policy designs that are economically beneficial and those that are politically acceptable, with important consequences for how investor policies are designed and promoted to public audiences.