Cash for citizenship

National identity is based on the bond of citizenship, which entails a willingness to participate in the country's social and political institutions and a sense of loyalty towards the constitution of the country.

The government's proposal to sell Maltese citizenship for €650,000 sends a shiver down the spine for anyone with a sense of patriotic dignity.

It is an extreme kind of mercantilism that reduces one of the most important bonds in a democracy to a financial transaction.

It's not because this will make it easier for foreigners to become Maltese. In a modern globalised society, the acquisition of citizenship has nothing to do with ethnicity. I have argued in the past in favour of granting automatic citizenship to the children of foreign residents who attended a school cycle in Malta: it makes sense to grant citizenship to refugees and migrants who have spent a substantial part of their life in Malta, basically people who spend most of their life and have an organic attachment to Malta. These people can qualify as its citizens.

But even for these people, citizenship should be accompanied with education and compulsory attendance in courses on Malta's social and political institutions.

Instead of offering citizenship to those who seek it for pecuniary gain, possibly tax avoidance in their country of origin, the government should address the injustice of our current citizenship regime.

A recent report by the European Union Democracy Observatory (EUDO) citizenship observatory states that the acquisition of citizenship by naturalisation in Malta is overshadowed by the "singular non-reviewable discretion" which the Minister for Home Affairs enjoys in decisions on each case. The discretionary powers of the minister are described as "avenues of potential abuse and conflicts of interest" in the report.

Not surprisingly a record number of citizens where naturalized before the last general election. A total of 183 foreign residents were naturalised in 2012, up from just 91 in 2011, while a further 62 were naturalised in the first three months of 2013.

According to the report requirements for naturalization are "broad and vague," and each case is handled on its own merits without any standardised system, like language tests. Being of "good character" and being deemed by the minister as "a suitable citizen" are among the requirements. Persons applying for naturalisation also need two sponsors, one of whom must be an MP, a judge, a magistrate, a parish priest, a doctor, a lawyer, a notary public or an officer in the army or civil service.

The study notes the absence of any promotional material encouraging individuals to apply for citizenship through naturalisation. Nor has there ever been any citizenship ceremonies celebrating the acquisition of citizenship.

It is definitely ironic that the same government, which prepared planes to push back migrants to Libya before being stopped by the European Court of Human Rights, is opening up citizenship to anyone who can pay for it. One can sum up the government's ideology in a sentence: "Our country is open for all especially for the rich and powerful, irrespective of creed or colour but not so for the meek and the wretched of the earth."