Citizenship for Those who Invest into the Future of the State is Not Wrong, the Price Is the Problem Magni-Berton Raul Roughly two thousand years ago, Roman citizenship began to be sold to rich foreigners. As a consequence, rather than a way to share equal duties and rights, citizenship by the third century C.E. had become an aristocratic title. It divided people instead of rallying them. It increased inequalities instead of reducing them. The current situation is somewhat similar. Rich people have access to rich countries’ membership, and poor people remain on the wrong side. Thus, I sympathise with Shachar’s concerns and I think we should avoid to reproduce what we have already experimented in our ancient history. However, I do not agree with the way in which both Shachar and Spiro have identified the problem. Consider, for example, a situation in which a foreigner asks for access to citizenship in those terms: ‘I want to share the responsibility of my failures and achievements with you, and I’d like to invest in you and to be partly responsible of your achievements and your failures.’ This is a touching statement of solidarity and identification with a group. I have called it the stockholder principle: individual citizens are like a joint-stock company in which fellow-citizens invest. The consequence of these collective investments is a shared responsibility for individuals’ achievements. Moreover, the right to benefit from public support is associated with the duty to invest in other fellow-citizens’ life projects. These duties are embodied in specific taxes for public investment. Thus, each citizen is also a stockholder with respect to other citizens. Thus I would not say that the Maltese Parliament voted to ‘sell’ the Maltese passport when it granted citizenship for € 650,000. From a foreign investor’s point of view, given that she makes the above statement and is ready to invest in the future of Maltese citizens, she acquires a moral claim to become citizen. She does not only give a sum of money in exchange for rights; she also becomes more largely committed to the duties of a Maltese © The Author(s) 2018 R. Bauböck (ed.), Debating Transformations of National Citizenship, IMISCOE Research Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92719-0_4 21