Merit as a racial device: the ambiguous case of citizenship and residence by investment

This article interrogates the role of merit as a criterion for allocating public and social goods, with particular emphasis on immigration and citizenship regimes in the Global North. Although portrayed as a vehicle of de-ethnicisation/-racialisation, merit in practice operates through implicit and indirect mechanisms of ethnicisation and racialisation – which I term 'neo-racialisation'. As such, merit proves both legally and normatively problematic, perpetuating historical ‘blood hierarchies’ under a modern and ostensibly neutral guise. Analysing citizenship-by-investment (CBI) and residency-by-investment (RBI) programmes in the European Union, the Article reveals a paradox at the heart of meritocracy critiques: while merit-based selection schemes are embedded in ethno-racial hierarchies, opposition to such schemes is itself frequently embedded in such logics – an aspect largely neglected in existing scholarship. This tension calls for deeper examination of the neo-racialisation entrenched in the broader global citizenship regime. Focusing on the European Union as a case study, the article advances the argument that, despite their flaws, CBI and RBI schemes might represent the ‘lesser evil’, justified on four grounds: being egalitarian, anti-racist, anti-colonial and human rights-based.