Citizenship by investment in Türkiye: Who buys citizenship and why?

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the motives of those who want to acquire Turkish citizenship through investment. We conducted in-depth interviews with 45 people consisting of new citizens and intermediaries who assist foreigners in housing sales and citizenship applications in eight different provinces. Our study reveals that people from countries geographically close to Türkiye and global investors show significant interest in the citizenship program, which enables them to become Turkish citizens through investment. Importantly, we found that the tendency for investment is influenced by Türkiye’s bilateral relations with investors’ countries of origin, the relatively lower monetary barrier for investment encourages the migration of low-capital groups in search of a better life, and citizenship by investment facilitates capital transfer between countries.KEYWORDS: CitizenshipinvestmentTürkiye AcknowledgementsThis article is partially based on the Master’s thesis, titled ‘A Transnational Perspective on Citizenship by Investment in Türkiye,’ of Sibel Can Çetinkaya, who is a master’s student at Ankara University Social Sciences Institute, Department of Geography, under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayla Deniz.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. This outlook also paved the way for hundreds of thousands of Syrians to be granted Turkish citizenship, without any preconditions, despite strong opposition.2. TurkStat started to collect data on real estate acquisition by foreigners in 2008, and the Land Registry and Cadastre Information System (TAKBİS) was developed in 2011. In 2014, the Foreigners Office was established under the TKGM. Official websites such as www.yourkeytoTurkey.gov.tr and www.invest.gov.tr were prepared in the late 2010s (Genç and Eryılmaz Citation2021).3. Süleyman Soylu, the former Minister of Internal Affairs, said that they decided to not accept new resident permit application to neighbourhoods where the ratio of the number of foreigners to the total number of people exceeds 25% in order to prevent the concentration of foreigners in certain geographical units(June 11, 2022). In the same statement, he announced that they decided to keep the rate of foreigners all neighbourhoods below 20%.Additional informationNotes on contributorsAyla DenizAyla Deniz is an associate professor in the Department of Geography at Ankara University (Türkiye). She has worked as visiting researcher in several universities including University of Oxford and University of California, Davis. Her research primarily focuses on contemporary migration, urban studies and feminist geography. She has published several articles and book chapters in the fields of migration, city and gender.Sibel Can ÇetinkayaSibel Can Çetinkaya completed her BA in Geography and Sociology at Afyon Kocatepe University (Türkiye). Currently, she is a master student of Geography, Graduate School of Social Sciences at Ankara University (Türkiye). She works on citizenship regimes and intermediary mechanisms in Türkiye.