The Economist: Passport shopping, tax havens and a whole industry built around billionaire flight

Amid rising geopolitical uncertainty, the world’s wealthiest individuals are quietly redrawing the map of where they live - and why. A fast-growing industry of advisers is emerging to guide them through a complex web of visas, investment schemes, and shifting government policies. From sun-soaked tax havens to tightening Western regimes, countries are competing fiercely to attract - or retain - millionaires. But behind the glossy promises of residency and citizenship lie surprising reversals, hidden risks, and unexpected destinations. This investigation reveals how money, mobility, and power are reshaping global migration in ways that few could have predicted just a few years ago now unfolding globally..From The Economist, published under licence. The original article can be found on www.economist.com© 2025 The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved..The Economist.These are unsettling times, even for the rich. Many of those wealthy enough to move abroad for low taxes or their physical or political security are less sure these days about settling in Dubai or Hong Kong, even America or Britain. Dry your eyes, however, for plenty of governments remain eager to take in foreigners with money and skills. And a growing industry of trusted advisers stands ready to help the rich relocate..For these consiglieri, business is booming. Last year more than 140,000 millionaires migrated, the most on record, reckons New World Wealth, a research firm; this year it expects the figure to rise to 165,000 (see chart). IMI, another research outfit, estimates that the investment-migration industry—which advises both rich would-be expatriates and governments seeking investment and talent—turned over $40bn in 2025, twice as much as in 2019. IMI counts more than 1,200 companies providing investment-migration services. They include law firms, providers of property or investment funds linked to citizenship or residency, accountants and so on.Until Iran struck the Gulf states, a favoured destination was Dubai, home to a fast-growing number of millionaires. One immigration lawyer describes the emirate as the Walmart of the industry, with countless providers and fiercely competitive rates. It has chiefly attracted rich people from the global south: south Asia, but also Nigeria and war-torn Syria and Lebanon..Industry folk now report growing interest in migration among well-off Westerners. Many rich Britons started looking for options after the pandemic. In 2025 they applied to 23 investment-migration programmes run by foreign governments, including America’s EB-5 scheme and programmes in Grenada and Thailand. Elsewhere in Europe, concern about wealth taxes is a prompt. Henley & Partners, a consultancy, publishes an annual list of the top countries millionaires are fleeing from and heading to. Last year France, Germany and Spain appeared for the first time among the countries that repelled more wealthy inhabitants than they attracted.But the biggest shift is in America—home to more than a third of the world’s people worth $30m or more, according to Knight Frank, a property firm. “The US has gone from a blip to the primary market,” says Ronald Klasko, a lawyer in Philadelphia. In 2024, having spotted that more Americans were seeking advice about foreign citizenship and residency, he set up Exodus Migration, an investment-migration consultancy. He says that most clients are interested in moving to Europe, because they are concerned about America’s political direction, want an alternative residency or want to be able to travel without an American passport.Despite such misgivings, and the fact that America bans some countries’ citizens, it still attracts many rich foreigners. Demand for the EB-5 programme, which requires investment of at least $800,000 in the country, is high—though that may be because the threshold is due to rise to around $900,000 at the start of next year. (Lawyers report “very little demand” for Donald Trump’s “Gold Card” visa, which is priced at $1m per family member and has an uncertain legal foundation.)Many other places are eager to get in on the act. St Vincent and the Grenadines, in the Caribbean, announced in December that it was opening a citizenship-by-investment programme it called a “critical economic pillar”. Uzbekistan, the Maldives and Nauru have all asked Henley to design and develop schemes..Yet the wealthy can find that a warm welcome sometimes goes cold. In January 2025 Spain, once a popular destination, cancelled its €500,000 ($577,000) residency programme in an effort to curb property speculation. In April the European Union’s Court of Justice ruled that Malta’s scheme broke EU law because it “commercialised” citizenship (though the island’s “citizenship-by-merit” programme, which admits entrepreneurs, has since gained traction). In April this year Argentina cancelled a tender to set up an investment-migration programme, issued only in December, which had drawn interest from 11 firms. Last month Portugal extended most migrants’ waiting time for passports from five years to ten.Many governments are facing pressure to increase the diligence of their citizenship and residency programmes, notes Mr Klasko. The big issue is: “Do you as a country know the background of people who you are giving passports to?” In other words, geopolitical uncertainty does not only trouble the rich. But plenty of countries will take them—and plenty of advisers are eager to help them choose. .Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.

The Economist: Passport shopping, tax havens and a whole industry built around billionaire flight

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