Thursday, January 16, 2014

The future of Malta’s cash-for-citizenship scheme?

The future of Malta's discriminatory cash-for-citizenship scheme?

These are 2 possible scenarios.

(1) It can be withdrawn or removed (2) It can be copied by other countries.

The first case would be a victory for social justice. The second would represent an unintended effect of the Maltese Government's rushed decision-making. It would result in the triumph of discriminatory, class-based inequality, an intensification of commodification at a European level. I hope that Malta does not become a beacon of the second type of policy approach.

In the final instance, the question is whether we want Malta and EU to discriminate in favour of the rich. Not in my name.

I appeal to progressives to think in terms of the need for a Social Europe, and not to resort to cynical fatalism or counter-productive nationalism. Let us not fuel inequality by supporting such a discriminatory policy.

Other posts on Malta’s cash-for-citizenship scheme:

http://mikes-beat.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-revamped-citizenship-scheme-first.html

http://mikes-beat.blogspot.com/2013/11/deconstructing-citizenship.html