In Focus: The Quality of Nationality
| Author | Benjamin D. Hennig |
| Published date | 01 March 2018 |
| Date | 01 March 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/2041905818764702 |
20 POLITICAL INSIGHT • APRIL 2018
In Focus
The Quality of
Nationality
Issues of identity and nationality have
been a central part of the Brexit debate
in the UK. Research suggests that
where European identity exists, it does
so alongside national identities across the
continent rather than replacing or diminishing
these identities. But European identity and the
idea of a European citizenship has helped to
build a stronger argument for Eurosceptics,
who argue that increased European political
cooperation has eroded nationality and
national identity.
Beyond the emotional side of these
arguments, the question of nationality also has
very direct implications on citizens. Kochenov
& Lindeboom (2017) attempted to measure
the quality of nationalities in a more objective
way, that goes further than the subjective
feeling that dominates current debates about
national identity across Europe and elsewhere.
These authors found that nationalities are
by no means equal entities but contain a
substantial element of inequality in what one
is able to achieve in life.
The Quality of Nationality Index (QNI)
aims to quantify decisive indicators that
shape and dene key components that are
strongly linked to having the citizenship of a
country and the capabilities to use and utilise
these as a result of holding that citizenship.
The index uses internal and external values
that contribute to a person’s life prospects.
Internally, these include economic strength,
human development, as well as peace and
stability measured through GDP data, the
Human Development Index, the Global
Peace Index and other indices. Internal values
contribute 40 per cent of the overall QNI score.
As external values, the index considers how
a holder of a nationality (and its respective
passport) is able to travel with least disruption
through administrative processes, or to have
the freedom to settle in other countries. The
inclusion of travel and settlement freedom are
the main innovative elements of the QNI.
Beyond the aspect of diversity which looks
into the accessibility of other countries using
one’s nationality, both factors also take into
account how ‘valuable’ these destinations are.
The authors include the ‘weight’ of both travel
and settlement freedom, which are taking
human development and economic strength
of possible destinations into account. Diversity
and weight for both freedoms each contribute
to 15 per cent of the QNI rank value.
The achievements of European integration,
combined with the continent’s economic
strength and its long period of political stability
and peace, have a considerable impact on the
quality of its citizens nationalities. When looking
at external factors, Europe (apart from parts of
the Balkan peninsula) stands out with a unique
‘extreme high quality’. Travel freedom within
EFTA and EU-member states plays an important
part in this picture, but also contributes to the
high external value of nationality for those
countries that have entered into visa-free
travel agreements with this part of Europe. This
partly explains also the relatively high quality
of this value in much of the Americas, Japan,
or Australia and New Zealand. Globally unique
though, is the aspect of settlement freedom
which contributes considerably to the quality of
many European nationalities.
Towards the east and the south, the
(sometimes even visible) barriers of such
freedoms become apparent. Limited access
to Europe and very restricted travel – and
settlement – rules create a divided world in
which the African and Asian continent, despite
their geographical proximity are excluded
from these freedoms. Large parts of these
regions are characterised by a low quality or
medium external value. When seeing this
from a population centric perspective, as the
graphics show, it becomes apparent how
unequal and the external quality of nationality
is shaping the world in a very polarising way.
This polarisation and divided world
becomes more apparent when looking at the
overall QNI scores and their global distribution
through two dierent lenses. An equal-
population projection of the world shows
almost half the world’s population has overall
quality of nationality scores of medium to
low quality, while economic strength clearly
contributes considerably to the value of
nationality, as an equal-wealth map projection
(showing the world proportional to its overall
GDP productivity) clearly shows where almost
exclusively the high/very high/extremely high-
scoring countries are visible.
Europe’s unique position in the value of
nationalities becomes visible once again. On
a wealthy continent without borders, the
quality of nationality plays an important part
in the European identity. Other countries also
benet from this trans-european cooperation
when entering agreements with this block of
(currently 34) countries. It would be a rather
ironic consequence of leaving the European
Union, that UK citizens would see a signicant
decline in their value of nationality if these
external freedoms cease to exist for them.
The quality of nationality between
dierent countries in Europe still varies quite
considerably, when comparing for example
Germany (currently on top of the global ranking
with a 82.7 per cent score) and Romania (73.4
per cent), but the quality of nationality has
improved strongly with their additional layer of
European identity, which could arguably also
be an argument for a more positive and more
Benjamin D. Hennig plots the value of different citizenships – and
finds that not all passports are equal.
Political Insight April 2018.indd 20 19/02/2018 11:19
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