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I wonder if there will ever be a time when there is a marketplace of citizenship. There are plenty of non-americans who want to become US citizens or immigrate

I wonder if there will ever be a time when there is a marketplace of citizenship. There are plenty of non-americans who want to become US citizens or immigrate legally. And at the same time there are US citizens going the other way. An example could be an Italian wanting to move to the US because he works in Tech and a US citizen wanting to move to Italy because he works in Fashion. A marketplace would allow the two to work out a citizenship swap, with the necessary immigration paperwork. In my view it is a win-win because a. The immigration is two way. b. In a global economy we can expect more and more people to move across countries. This service would facilitate that c. The immigrants would want to do such a thing out of real interest in improving their lives and thereby the lives of their chosen country. Given that Passports are a fairly new invention that's about a 100 years old, (thanks to the French and Germans just before WWI), I don't see why it can't be created.

lumberjack 12y ago
The whole point of citizenship is that it is a sort of legal contract of sorts between the would be citizen and the rest of the citizens. It's not a simple matter between two people. If such a marketplace were to be legally implemented it should be far more complicated than a simple swap of citizenship between two people. Even then, the liquidity of citizenship would undermine its value, for better or worst.
- shortsightedsid 12y ago
  If there is a marketplace then it's value will be determined by that market. If people can move into apartments and can be interviewed for it, the same could apply here. Obviously, I haven't thought this out completely and naturally there are all sorts of complications, but in reality, the question is - why can't people freely migrate from country to country? Naturally there are costs involved, a legal bearing, maybe even a quarantine timeline, but it should be possible. People did that all the time until the 20th century and therefore, it's an artificial barrier that's been put up.

lumberjack 12y ago

The whole point of citizenship is that it is a sort of legal contract of sorts between the would be citizen and the rest of the citizens. It's not a simple matter between two people. If such a marketplace were to be legally implemented it should be far more complicated than a simple swap of citizenship between two people. Even then, the liquidity of citizenship would undermine its value, for better or worst.

shortsightedsid 12y ago
If there is a marketplace then it's value will be determined by that market. If people can move into apartments and can be interviewed for it, the same could apply here. Obviously, I haven't thought this out completely and naturally there are all sorts of complications, but in reality, the question is - why can't people freely migrate from country to country? Naturally there are costs involved, a legal bearing, maybe even a quarantine timeline, but it should be possible. People did that all the time until the 20th century and therefore, it's an artificial barrier that's been put up.