Mark Carney didn’t just deliver a good speech at Davos, he wrote it himself – a lesson in the optics of authenticity for other leaders keen to shine on a fiercely lit world stage. Granted, some of its highlights might not have sounded so fresh to the Canadian press corps or anyone who was already in the thrall of the “Carneyval” spirit but the speech was nevertheless a resounding hit and made Trump’s rambling follow-up sound incoherent by comparison. 

The sugar high of the address is now dissipating but as a rhetorical lesson it resounds still. In an age of outsourced language – when leaders tend to speak with caution, preferring flat-pack political jargon to nuanced perspective – Carney’s confident account of the new world order didn’t just point out the elephant in the room, it also described the global predicament in fine detail. It just goes to show the power of writing your own words, refining your own ideas, coming to your own conclusions. 

Done well, writing isn’t the transcription of thought so much as the interrogation of it. The craft crystallises ideas into irreducible and irrefutable clarity. On the page, ideas must arrive in order, find a rhythm, develop a narrative and – most labouriously – mean something. This discipline has fallen out of fashion. At a time of flooded news feeds, economic uncertainty and concocted crises, Carney hit the geopolitical moment on the head and, like a nail, his point sank in. 

World leaders take notice, coherence creates credibility. His arguments were lucid, his sentences sanded and shaped, his tone firm but understanding (particularly toward similar middle powers). Take, for instance, his description of the weaponisation of global integration by the might-is-right mentality: “You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration, when integration becomes the source of your subordination.” Where other politicians speak with the confusing cacophony of committee, Carney comes across with a singular voice. You could feel his conclusions arising organically from the natural logic of his own perspective. 

And yet, the address did leave this recovering classicist with one lingering question: how did Carney manage to open his speech with a quote from Thucydides without seeming pretentious or losing his audience? Of course, the room was full of the world’s elite, many of whom (we assume) have read and learned the lessons of the Peloponnesian Wars. But still, quoting ancient historians at the World Economic Forum risked becoming the rhetorical equivalent of bringing a lute to a networking lunch. And yet it was the confidence with which Carney breezed past the quotation (“The strong will do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”) that gave him the cachet to continue. Invoking Thucydides spoke to more than the moment. It also cast the present standoff in classical relief: the Periclean Carney versus the Cleonic Trump. 

It is forgivable, without context, to confuse Thucydides’s line for a concession to realpolitik. In fact, the Greek writer and general was talking about Athenian hubris. Trump will do what he can and middle powers such as Canada will suffer what they must. But history teaches us that the Athenian empire was a poor hegemon – and relatively short lived. 

Then, unwilling to restrict his frame of reference to antiquity, Carney doubled down. He turned to Václav Havel’s The Power of the Powerless, an essay in which he explains how communist regimes perpetuated through the small, individual capitulations that sustain large lies – namely the unconvinced grocer who hangs a “Workers of the World, Unite!” sign in his window. If Carney’s example is to be followed, leaders should start hanging up their own signs or, at the very least, a new rallying cry, “Write your own signs!” Because the more politicians, broadcasters and power brokers who write for themselves – who develop a voice of their own rather than hiding in the absence of one – the less room there is for hot air to rise to the top of our news feeds. 

These undercurrents carried the Canadian prime minister’s speech forward because he didn’t censor himself for the ignorance of others. He simply strode from sentence to sentence, trusting the crowd to follow, assuming intelligence rather than pandering to the illiterati. In uncertain times such confidence is magnetic. Trump’s grip on attention is of another nature but audacity doesn’t convey authority and Trump’s rambling follow-up speech was about as compelling as Amazon’s new Melania documentary. 

Carney’s digressions into political philosophy, far from placing too high a brow on the speech, were the source of its rhetorical power. By giving himself the space to historicise and the patience to assemble his points against the backdrop of a crisis as confusing as it was concocted – Greenland – he gave his speech a framework and a narrative. 

The “rupture” Carney spoke of but never outright named – because he didn’t have to – can no longer be ignored. His obituary for the old world order was necessary for the grieving process. Denial did nothing to help, anger and bargaining played into Trump’s hands and depression dragged on for way too long. But acceptance through clear understanding, well, now we’re getting somewhere. What is more, the Carney doctrine also provided Democrats with a blueprint for how to combat Trumpism in the coming midterms: don’t stoop to the president’s level, rise to the occasion. Hear that, Gavin Newsom?

Blake Matich is Monocle’s digital sub editor and a regular contributor.

In Iraq, the re-emergence of former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki as the country’s next potential leader has caused something of a stir. Al-Maliki has been nominated by the country’s dominant political party to retake the prime ministership that he was first handed just a few years after the 2003 US-led invasion that deposed Saddam Hussein. 

Al-Maliki is remembered as much for allowing the emergence of Islamic State as anything he did to revive the country itself. His resurgence today appears to have less to do with his record in office and more with some internal political shenanigans. And it’s very much without American support: Donald Trump this week has warned that the US would pull its financial backing out of Iraq if Al-Maliki does in fact become the next prime minister. Iraq’s parliament has in turn postponed a vote on the country’s president, a ceremonial post and the person who would officially install Al-Maliki as prime minister. All of this is happening as Trump’s declared armada sails towards Iran, putting serious pressure on Iraq’s neighbour. Al-Maliki himself is accused of having too close a relationship with Iran – another reason for US opposition to his nomination.

Loveday Morris covered the Middle East for a decade and was the Baghdad bureau chief for The Washington Post from 2014 to 2017. She is currently its Berlin bureau chief. Morris spoke with Monocle Radio’s Christopher Cermak on The Briefing – the following is a transcript of their conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity.

Let’s start with Nouri al-Maliki’s legacy and his first time in office. What was he known for?
Al-Maliki served two terms as prime minister between 2006 to 2014. It was a period marred by sectarianism and he was broadly blamed for laying the ground for the rise of the Islamic State and the so-called caliphate in 2014. There were complaints of arbitrary arrests and harassment by security forces, which led to big protests in Anbar and a real sense of disaffection among the Sunni population. People saw all of that as a reason for the rise of Isis and why things collapsed so quickly in the face of the militants. There were other reasons, of course, but Al-Maliki’s sectarian policies were seen as one of the main causes.

Which then begs the question: why is he having a resurgence now and who are his supporters?
I wouldn’t call it a resurgence – it seems to be more of an accidental situation. [Al-Maliki’s return] came out of wranglings within the umbrella group that won the highest number of seats in November’s elections. While he and the incumbent prime minister, Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, were both gunning for the top seat, other members of the coalition sent them off and basically said, ‘You guys decide among yourselves and we’ll go with whoever you choose.’ Al-Sudani ended up stepping aside and backing Al-Maliki.  

Some people see the decision as political play. He made the choice to step aside knowing that Al-Maliki is a deeply unpopular figure in some circles, so there would be some resistance to him becoming prime minister. After which, [Al-Sudani], who is also disfavoured in other circles, would be able to step in. But Al-Maliki’s nomination remained unchallenged until the Trump administration’s public reaction.

I wanted to get to that reaction, which responds to the internal political intrigue that you’re describing. Why has the Trump administration made such a big deal of this nomination?
Washington has experience dealing with Al-Maliki. Though the US backed him for his second term in 2014, other powers were rounding against him to remove him as he clung to the position.  

But [to answer the question of] why the Trump administration is so opposed now, we must look at the bigger geopolitical situation. The US is trying to isolate Iran and Iraq is one of the key stages [that will allow them] to do so. Much of American policy is focused on rolling back Iranian influence, so when our reporting and others’ [showed] that Al-Maliki was given Iran’s blessing at one point, it didn’t help his position in the eyes of the US. Besides the public reaction from Trump, we also saw a quieter one: a call from Marco Rubio to Al-Sudani, voicing concerns about an Iran-influenced government. US policy here is about disarming the Iran-backed militias. I suppose there are some questions about whether Al-Maliki would do that, though it’s also worth asking whether any other prime minister will be capable or willing to do it.

Al-Maliki has rejected US interference as an attack on Iraq’s sovereignty but at the end of the day, it’s not really up to him. As you’ve alluded to, there are a lot of internal dynamics here –  how does this play out?
Al-Maliki looks like he’s digging in; he has put out very strong statements rejecting this interference and politicians in his bloc have talked about being able to win Trump over. While he hasn’t made any public statements about giving up the nomination, we all realise that Iraq cannot afford to go up against the Trump administration. Everyone is terrified of US sanctions. Washington effectively controls Iraq’s purse strings because oil revenues go to the US Federal Reserve. So there is a real fear that if it went up against the US administration, the dollar flow to Iraq could be potentially cut off. It’s very hard to see how Al-Maliki’s nomination can continue while facing these pressures.  

Now the question is, who will step in? Al-Sudani is also quite unpopular among members of his coalition who will be discussing the path forward. It’s possible that they’ll have a consensus candidate of some kind; someone who is a little more in the shadows, who they can come to an agreement on. We’ll have to wait and see.

Finally, there is an ‘armada’ approaching, as Trump calls it. Iran is facing its own demands from the US to negotiate on a nuclear deal. Is Iraq watching closely, even if it might not be supporting Al-Maliki anymore?
There is a great amount of nervousness here, due to the proximity to Iran and the fear of being sucked into any conflict. And a large factor that [plays into the anxiety] is the presence of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, which might feel the need to become involved should there be a strike on Iran. Even here in Baghdad, some of the militias that are closest to Iran, such as Kataib Hezbollah, are signing up fighters who plan to cross the border in the scenario that the regime is threatened in any way.

For more insight on the US’s intervention into Iraqi affairs, listen to the full conversation on ‘The Briefing’ from Monocle Radio. 

In the heart of Zürich’s old town sits the Widder Hotel, composed of nine interconnected townhouses that date back to the 13th century. Designed by architect Tilla Theus in the 1980s, it’s a portfolio cornerstone for The Living Circle, a Swiss hotel group whose list of properties includes hotels, farm-to-table restaurants and a trio of impeccably appointed and serviced apartments in Zürich. 

“We always want to offer visitors something different”, says The Living Circle’s CEO, Marco Zanolari. To fulfil this ambition, the luxury Swiss hotel group approached Monocle with an ambitious project late last year. “We were looking for a brand that has an international language that we respect and understand,” says Zanolari. “We felt that Monocle would fit that mould and bring us forward, positioning us in the world”. 

The result? The Monocle Townhouse. A three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in a converted seminary. The property is located a stone’s throw from the Widder Hotel on Münzplatz, with interiors refreshed by Monocle and The Living Circle’s design teams – proof that media brands can play a role in shaping physical and hospitality spaces too.

Inside, a series of photographic prints from Monocle’s archive adorn the walls, featuring original imagery from reportage in places such as Malta and Kyoto. German-made Technisat radios tuned to Monocle Radio also provide a point of connection with Monocle’s global network of correspondents, while wares from our favoured furniture houses including USM, Moebe, String, Seitz and Olaio add to the mix. Swiss-American furniture brand Seitz also created a custom table for the dining room, which is complemented by bespoke seating from Portugal’s Olaio, providing the perfect dinner setting for someone confident enough to whip up a meal in the apartment’s well-appointed kitchen. There are also a host of hand-picked pieces from Swiss galleries Studio Vintage and Sella Studio, which lend warmth, individuality and a sense of lived-in comfort. 

“Lots of people come to Zürich for a month at a time,” says Zanolari. “So it’s nice to offer them the experience of living here”. Indeed, The Monocle Townhouse offers a high degree of residential-like privacy and space, while still providing the full amenities expected of a stay at the Widder: daily housekeeping, concierge support, a 24-hour gym and access to the hotel’s services. 

“You can also order food from our two restaurants by chef Stefan Heilemann, including his new Asian fusion space Soï 28,” says design and brand experience manager Marcel Schöpf, who worked extensively on the renovation of the apartment. “You can book a boat on Lake Zürich too and ride up to our other property, the Alex”. 

Schöpf explains that this is all part of a mission to bring the best of Zürich together with a high-end but homely hospitality offering. “We’re already seeing big brands approach us to host dinners and events but we also like to see three good friends – or couples – staying for a week,” says Schöpf. “It’s the perfect base to explore Zürich and Switzerland from”.

Book your stay at The Monocle Townhouse at The Widder Hotel today.

At 10.00 on a bright and bitterly cold November day, Monocle is in one of Rotterdam’s biggest harbourside warehouses. Outside, two removal vans begin unloading pallets full of some of the country’s most valuable works of photography. The Nederlands Fotomuseum – the national custodian of 6.5 million photographs, negatives and objects – is moving into its new home: Pakhuis Santos, a former coffee warehouse. 

Its collection is one of the world’s largest and is predicted to grow to 7.5 million objects by 2028. It focuses on work by Dutch photographers as well as those who spent extended periods in the Netherlands. Loaded onto the back of those vans are images that tell the nation’s story, such as Bernard F Eilers’s documentation of the Amsterdam School of architecture and Augusta Curiel’s visual records of life in Suriname under Dutch colonial rule. The collection features archives of more than 175 photographers – Ata Kandó, Esther Kroon and Ed van der Elsken among them. Stored with the images are a large number of glass-plate negatives and contact sheets that reveal the processes behind the artistry. Alongside Ed van der Elsken’s iconic photographs of young Parisians in the 1950s are scrappy contact sheets adorned with his colourful scribbles that mark his favourite shots or how he wanted an image to be cropped. “We go to great lengths to consider how these photographers would have liked us to display their work,” says Nederlands Fotomuseum’s head of collections, Martijn van den Broek. 

The collection also includes a series of portraits by Erwin Olaf, in which he burnt the colour negatives with a lighter to dramatic effect. There are ways, then, to make this notoriously fragile artform even more so. But the operation to move the works into the Santos warehouse is a delicate affair. 

Dutch firm Imming Logistics Fine Art is handling the operation, overseen by Nederlands Fotomuseum’s Cobie Hijma. Inside the vans, the glass plates face the direction of travel to prevent any jolts from damaging them. Hijma and her team have sketched detailed layouts of the vehicles’ interiors to figure out the most efficient way to transport the works. While the country’s inclement weather was a cause for concern, it has luckily only rained on a single day during the six-week transportation schedule. “It was a team-building experience like no other,” says Hijma.    

As precious plates, pallets and boxes are unloaded from the vehicles, Van den Broek is on hand to oversee what feels like a careful game of Tetris. All materials were moved directly to their permanent destinations in climate-controlled storage spaces as quickly as possible (units containing film negatives are typically regulated at 4C). “If it’s not regulated properly, the changes in temperature as we move the archives can cause a build-up in condensation,” says Van den Broek. “It’s a highly technical exercise.”  

The new museum site, which was built between 1901 and 1902, was originally used to store coffee imported from the Brazilian city of Santos. It then sat vacant for more than 60 years, followed by an aborted attempt to transform it into a design showroom. In 2023 the philanthropic Droom en Daad cultural foundation purchased the building to ensure that the Nederlands Fotomuseum could have a purpose-built space. And it’s a good thing too: the collection has almost doubled in size since its last move in 2007, which was to the Las Palmas building just a 15-minute walk away.  

Pakhuis Santos is one of the few buildings in Rotterdam to survive the Second World War. Its striking concrete and cast-iron structure has now been spruced up by local studio Wdjarchitecten and Hamburg-based Renner Hainke Wirth Zirn Architekten. The renovations have resulted in a rooftop extension and the opening up of the central atrium, which has allowed natural light to filter through each of the five storeys (as well as the restaurant on the sixth), transforming the dingy warehouse into a structure that breathes while retaining its beaux arts soul. 

When it opens on 7 February, Nederlands Fotomuseum will join the newly opened Fenix Museum of Migration in the Rijnhaven district, a neighbourhood undergoing major redevelopment. While the archives might document the ups and downs of the country’s history, this move is about looking to the future. “Photography is an irreplaceable record of who we are,” says Van den Broek. “Yet it is among the most fragile forms of cultural heritage, making its protection not just a responsibility but a necessity.”
nederlandsfotomuseum.nl

Kristi Noem seems to have an inappropriate outfit for every occasion: the US homeland security secretary sported camouflage leggings when meeting senior Chilean officials and donned lip gloss, earrings and bootcut jeans while joining an immigration raid in New York. Earlier this month, she appeared on a podium wearing a huge cowboy hat soon after the shooting of an unarmed mother of three in Minneapolis shocked America. In her yee-haw attire, the former governor of South Dakota and long-time Trump acolyte accused the dead woman of perpetrating “an act of domestic terrorism”. But it appears that her particular brand of brash, cosplay politics – with its made-for-TV production values and soundbites – has fallen out of favour. 
 
Noem’s response to the shooting of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer on 7 January was already at odds with the concern felt among many ordinary Americans about the shooting of a fellow citizen on a quiet neighbourhood street. 
 
Now, another American is dead, and once again Noem was quick to pass judgement with dramatic public pronouncements. Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse who cared for military veterans, was surrounded by ICE agents in Minneapolis on Saturday and shot dead at point blank range during a scuffle. It didn’t take long for Noem to get in front of the cameras and call Pretti a domestic terrorist intending to “inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement”. Americans heard her words, then watched multiple videos of a man with just a phone in his hand trying to protect a female bystander. Something didn’t add up.

So, apparently, did her boss. When asked if the president agreed with Noem’s words, Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday said that she had not heard the president “characterise Mr Pretti in that way.” When asked about Pretti on Tuesday, Trump said, “I love everybody. I love all of our people. I love his family”. 
 
This is a very different sentiment than the one espoused by Noem and her henchman in Minneapolis, Gregory Bovino, a senior border control agent with his own penchant for theatrics in front of the camera – often while decked out in flamboyant military attire. 
 
By Tuesday, Bovino had been ordered out of Minneapolis and Trump sent in Tom Homan, his “border tsar” with a wide-ranging portfolio. Significantly, Homan and Noem are known to loathe each other. Homan is a career law-enforcement officer, known to be scathing of Noem’s image-first approach to policing. He has already met Minnesota governor Tim Walz and there is finally a little optimism in Minneapolis that an end to the intensive ICE deployment might be in sight. 
 
The administration is at pains to show public support for Noem. Trump insisted on Tuesday that she would not stand down and is “doing a very good job”. It is also unlikely that this attempt at de-escalation in Minneapolis marks a significant shift in Trump’s migration policies. Arrests continue on the city’s streets even as the officials try to clear the air and a short-lived new ICE deployment took place in Maine last week. But there is more awareness of how the public is perceiving the operations, with support for ICE evaporating. A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week found that backing for Trump’s migration policies was at a record low, with some 58 per cent of people saying that he had gone too far. 
 
Noem is a woman who once said that she shot her own dog. At a time when citizens are demanding more empathy from leaders, the White House might finally be realising that she is not the public face that it needs.
 
Charlotte McDonald-Gibson is a Washington-based journalist and regular Monocle contributor. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

There’s something about the passing of another year that gets our readers thinking about change. “Am I,” they wonder, “in the right career? Could I find a better spot to run my enterprise from? Should I upend my life and switch cities or nations?” For some, the moment passes and home comforts override the desire to switch things up. But for many, this is the moment to move. This issue is designed to show what’s possible and how to make the leap.

Our February edition begins with the topic of migration. Across the Western world, public sentiment around the issue has hardened, with politicians ushering in tighter controls, promising voters that numbers will fall. The pace of arrivals has made some people uncomfortable, especially if they are in communities that are economically challenged and see little benefit from welcoming new people.

Our opening pages include an interview with Spain’s minister for migration, Elma Saiz, who explains why her country is following a different path. To keep the economy growing (it expanded 2.9 per cent last year) and offset the effects of an ageing population, Spain needs to pull in at least 250,000 new migrants every year, according to government figures. Even though most of these are Latin Americans, making assimilation easier, migration is now the number-one concern for Spanish voters. Can the country continue with this policy?

We also get a perspective on the growing passport collections of high-net-worth individuals who want to avoid paying taxes. As someone who only has a single passport, I have always been jealous of my colleagues, even my partner, who have a spare national identity tucked away in a drawer. I’d like to be a person who has the right to live in Europe and waltz through passport control. Yet our report makes you wonder whether it is acceptable if your allegiance is to your accountant and not to your nation. In the meantime, you can find out why an African passport has become a desirable addition to the line-up.

There are many more takes to discover on making a move. There’s a great report on Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter, where we meet the ambassadors living in this compact, walkable neighbourhood. Diplomats are used to being sent on a new mission every four years and the story lends a fascinating insight into how they manage to leap from culture to culture and seize the opportunity.

We also look at logistics (we’ll show you how to fly a dead whale halfway around the world) and the benefits of taking on an HQ move (you’ll get a sneak preview of Bonhams’ fresh New York base). There are even neighbourhoods to move to, a Caribbean city attracting global talent and the stories of people who have switched careers.

The desire to find opportunities over the horizon is natural. Monocle has thrived because it has been able to dispatch staff to bureaux around the world and attract global talent. But that doesn’t diminish the debate about migration. What’s essential is that the issue is discussed, facts are brought to the fore and fair decisions are made. Though, in the meantime, if anyone knows how I might get another passport, do let me know. You can contact me at at@monocle.com or any of our team (we list all of our email addresses on the masthead).

Of the many issues roiling our politics, migration appears to be the most important, at least to voters. In large Western countries, most of which have high inward migration, opposition to it is upending the political status quo, resulting in the rapid rise of right-wing populist parties whose raison d’être is to severely limit the numbers of people coming in. Even in smaller nations without large immigrant populations and more of a tradition of emigration than immigration, such as Hungary and Poland, the issue has come to dominate politics.

Whether they are on the right or left, political parties feel that they must take a position. In places such as the UK, France and Germany, historically centre-left parties have largely followed their traditional working-class voters to the right, aping the policies and rhetoric of the insurgent populists. This has created an environment in which it feels as though the only stance to take on immigration is to be against it. And yet, this same bipartisan position is being taken in a world that is more mobile than ever – with people able (and desirous) to travel across borders in record numbers. Adding to the cognitive dissonance is the reality that humans are by nature migratory and migration has defined our history; indeed, countries such as the US, now the leading voice of international anti-immigration, were formed by it.

It would not be radical to suggest that the subject is not as straightforward as it is made out to be. Beyond the headlines of out-of-control irregular migration and voter dissatisfaction, millions of people successfully emigrate every year and many governments welcome them with open arms.

Throughout Monocle’s February edition, we explore this hottest of hot-button issues. Here, we survey who is moving and why, and list 10 countries that are courting immigrants in specific professions (it might surprise you). Then we look at the wealthier people (many from rich countries) who are acquiring citizenships (many of poor countries) using financial means and their reasons for doing so. Finally, we travel to Madrid to meet Spain’s migration minister and discuss why her government is setting high targets for the number of people who it wants to attract.

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Putting down roots
It’s not all about money.

Public perceptions of migration can be warped by the extremes: overcrowded boats of refugees at one end of the spectrum and billionaires’ doomsday redoubts at the other. In most cases, however, people move for more prosaic reasons. “The number-one criterion is family reunification,” says Jean-Christophe Dumont, the head of the international migration division at the OECD’s Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. “It accounts for 40 per cent of migration to OECD countries and about 70 per cent of regular migration to the US.”

The second-largest category of entry for migrants is work. As the demands of the labour market have changed, so has the profile of people who relocate for a job. With advanced economies increasingly requiring a skilled workforce, the level of education among migrants has risen. “About a third of migrants to OECD countries now have tertiary education,” says Dumont. “This reflects rising levels of education worldwide but also the fact that migration is costly. People who have the skills and means to make the move tend to be better educated.”

A corollary has been women making up a higher share of those moving countries than ever. “In the 1970s and 1980s, labour migration was mostly about supplementing the workforce in industrial sectors, such as the automobile and metal industries, which mostly employed men,” says Dumont. “Now the demand is greater in industries where women are more prevalent, such as the healthcare and service sectors. We are also finding that tertiary-educated women from low-income countries are using migration to improve their prospects, which might be limited at home.” In some countries with selective systems, the share of those with tertiary education is higher in migrants than among the native population.

Decisions over whether or not to move for work are often more complex than a matter of simply chasing the highest salary. “It’s not so much the wage that makes the difference but the longer-term opportunities for career development,” says Dumont. “If I’m thinking of migrating for work, the prospects for my children in the new country are also important.”

Remote working – an insignificant blip

A new type of labour-related migration is also becoming increasingly common: people working remotely in one country for companies or clients based in another. Until recently, working remotely on a permanent or semi-permanent basis was mainly the preserve of self-styled “digital nomads”, a subculture dominated by those in the technology sector. The coronavirus pandemic changed this, causing the rapid expansion of out-of-office working across white-collar industries. Many are taking advantage of their new geographic freedom to move to a different country without losing their jobs.

This has created a new set of challenges for immigration policymakers. “Some countries are simply clarifying rules around tourist visas to make it clear whether visitors are able to work remotely,” says Kate Hooper, a senior analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank. “Others have introduced dedicated digital-nomad visas but these tend to be more of a marketing tool and uptake has been low. Most people still choose to simply work while on a tourist visa. It’s easier, quicker and often cheaper.”

Portugal rolled out a highly publicised bespoke digital-nomad visa in 2022 and Spain followed suit in 2023. These schemes, however, have not made a particularly noticeable difference: the Iberian nations have been issuing about 20,000 digital-nomad visas a year, compared to about 1.5 million other kinds of tourist and short-stay visas.

Hooper says that the growth of remote working has resulted in migration-related policy issues that go far beyond visa definitions. “Where will people be taxed – are they establishing a legal presence in another country?” she asks. “If you’re signing contracts in a new country, are you exposing your company to local labour and employment laws? How portable are pensions? Remote work is the future but there are different systems that need to be updated to keep up with that trend. A lot of employers are shy about exposing themselves to risks in these grey areas.”

How migration protects wealth

High-net-worth individuals (HNWIS) face yet further considerations when it comes to migration. The main issue is whether they should live in the same place as their money. “Our industry is called investment migration but most of our clients don’t physically relocate,” says Dominic Volek, the group head of private clients at consultancy Henley & Partners. Nonetheless, more and more HNWIS are seeking to cultivate a strategic presence in various far-flung locations.

“We talk about ‘geopolitical arbitrage’: it’s about hedging against risks at home while capitalising on opportunities offered by other countries,” says Volek. “An American family we work with might attain residence in Costa Rica, citizenship in Europe, a Caribbean passport, a UAE Golden Visa and permanent residence in New Zealand. All of this means that they’re properly hedged against who knows what might happen in all of these jurisdictions. Since the Russia-Ukraine war, we’ve even been having discussions with families in Europe about conscription. We launched a citizenship programme in Nauru last year. The first family we worked with who received a Nauru passport was German. And why would these people want citizenship of a tiny South Pacific island without moving there? To avoid their child getting pulled into a war.”

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Ten countries that want you
Looking to start afresh somewhere new? Many nations are offering work visas to those with specific skills.

1.
Fishmongers
Sweden
It might have many lakes and a vast Baltic coastline but Sweden is lacking fishmongers. A 2023 government report into at-risk sectors suggests that knowing your way around a rainbow trout could now gain you a work permit.

2.
Musicians
Germany
Germany’s artist visa allows musicians, including DJs, to apply for long-term residency. The only requirements are that the applicant must be based in Berlin, can provide a detailed CV and has a clear financial plan for the years ahead.

3.
Ambulance drivers
Denmark
Denmark’s immigration policies received much attention last year for limiting inward numbers. The country’s latest list for in-demand skilled workers features 57 professions, including ambulance driver.

4.
Film-makers
Japan
Japan offers a special visa for film-makers, painters and poets to work in the country for between six months and three years. But any aspiring Kurosawas should know that competition is fierce – only about 300 applicants are accepted each year.

5.
Chimney sweeps
Austria
In Vienna, every home’s chimney must be inspected by a Rauchfangkehrer once a year. These chimney sweeps’ responsibilities extend to assessing boilers and hot-water tanks. Any skilled German-speaking sweep can apply for a work visa.

6.
Arborists
Australia
According to the Australian government’s most recent review of labour shortages, the nation is lacking skilled arborists. Tweaks to the country’s relatively restrictive immigration laws mean that employers can now use the “skills in demand” visa to hire much-needed tree experts.

7.
Architects
Vietnam
A new Vietnamese state decree has made hiring foreign engineers and architects a priority. The new talent visa affords architects special entry, along with investors, university researchers and public sports figures. It comes as the country embarks on several large infrastructure projects.

8.
Bakers
Canada
Bakers looking for more dough should consider heading to Canada. The country has launched an international campaign to attract bread makers, confectioners and pastry chefs. Provinces that are in particular need include Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. Time to lay down some flour.

9.
Thai chefs
New Zealand
Thai cuisine is now global – and one country that can’t get enough of massaman curry is New Zealand, where the government has set up a special visa just for chefs migrating from Thailand. Once their application has been approved, they are welcome to stay for four years. Grub’s up.

10.
Radiographers
South Africa
South Africa has suffered an acute brain drain of medical professionals, many of whom emigrate to the UK. The inclusion of radiographers on the country’s list of critically understaffed jobs means that any qualified applicant will gain 100 points towards their SA General Work Visa.

Read next: How holding multiple passports is shaping a new global citizenship reality

During the first two decades of this century, many people in the West came to take easy mobility for granted. The 2020s have pulled the rug from under their feet. First, the coronavirus pandemic demonstrated how quickly nations can close their doors. In Europe, 17 countries that are party to the Schengen Agreement reintroduced internal border controls. Australian citizens were banned from leaving the country for 19 months unless they could demonstrate that they had strong ties to somewhere else. The following year, as a result of Brexit, UK citizens lost the right to live and work in 27 countries. Since then, the Ukraine war, the unpredictable actions of the second Trump administration and other destabilising developments have driven record numbers of Westerners to seek alternative papers.

Part of financial literacy is understanding the value of having a balanced portfolio: in other words, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. If freedom of movement and asset protection are important to you, having only one citizenship is as reckless as storing your entire net worth in a single place. By holding multiple, you diversify your exposure to geopolitical risk. There are several ways of acquiring citizenship and about 75 per cent of countries now permit the holding of multiple passports (up from about 30 per cent in 1990).

Most people acquire their citizenship by descent and every country offers this pathway. However, this kind is often conditional – though there are generally provisions in place to prevent statelessness. About 17 per cent of countries, mainly in the Americas, also offer it through birth. A less common method, though one that is growing more popular across the globe, is citizenship by investment or donation, which falls under the umbrella term of “investment migration”.

Currently, there are 15 countries operating official programmes that grant citizenship to foreigners in exchange for a set donation or investment: Turkey, Cambodia, El Salvador, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Nauru, Vanuatu, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan. The required amounts range from $18,000 (€15,500) for Pakistan to $1m (€850,000) for El Salvador. Processing times for such programmes range from a few months to a year.

Many more countries grant citizenship by “merit”: they don’t define a specific donation or investment amount for eligibility but instead evaluate applications individually, looking for what they deem to be exceptional contributions to the nation. Austria, for example, has a longstanding practice of granting this kind of citizenship to those who invest several million euros in its economy. Unlike with residency-based naturalisation, integration and physical presence largely don’t play a role; applicants, however, must undergo more extensive government background checks.

Citizenship by investment or donation is more popular than ever. Sierra Leone and São Tomé and Príncipe started programmes in 2025. Other countries have similar legislation in the works so expect to see more entering the market this year. Governments in the Global South are waking up to the tremendous potential of investment migration. The benefits are clear: selling citizenship drives foreign direct investment, costs a country very little, allows it to control what kind of development takes place via eligibility requirements and, perhaps most importantly, gains it lifetime goodwill ambassadors around the world.

There are more applicants than ever and the demographics of who is applying have changed significantly in recent years. Historically, citizenship by investment and donation appealed primarily to successful entrepreneurs from the Global South who wanted a Western passport to expand their visa-free travel options. Between 2020 and 2025, Western citizens went from being a tiny fraction of global citizenship applications to the majority, according to reports from several sources. Demand continues to grow rapidly. North Americans and Europeans are now the most common clients for international firms that advise on investment migration (including my own, Peck & Nascimben Global).

Two of the most popular programmes for these clients are those of Sierra Leone and São Tomé and Príncipe. Western interest in African citizenship might be surprising but citizens of wealthy countries aren’t looking for another passport for travel – instead, they’re seeking investment access and hoping to benefit from the rise of the Global South. The African Union, for example, is the fastest-growing economic bloc in the world.

Most of these passport applicants don’t plan to live in Africa, though they value having the option to do so if the need arises. Meanwhile, some would like to acquire residency in another nation using their neutral African passport to avoid being affected by any strained relations in the future between the country where they live and their Western country of citizenship.

São Tomé and Príncipe is also a member of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. Treaties ratified by its member states grant Santomeans the ability to take up residency in other Lusophone countries, such as Brazil and Portugal, as well as the right to consular protection from Portuguese diplomatic missions abroad. Santomeans living in Brazil are also eligible for expedited naturalisation there. Sound appealing?

Investment migration will continue to grow as countries introduce programmes and more people seek to take advantage of them. Over the next few decades, having multiple citizenships will become commonplace – a huge societal shift that will fundamentally alter the notions of nationhood and citizenship.

Read next:
Migration beyond the headlines: Why people move
Spain’s open-border policies have helped its economy flourish – but there might be a catch

On a winter weekday in Madrid, Spain’s minister for inclusion, social security and migration is pushing back against clichés about her country. “It isn’t just sun and beaches,” says Elma Saiz at the ministry’s headquarters in the north of the capital. Above her head hangs a large photo of a cat; on another wall, near the requisite ministerial flags, is a painting of a man asleep on a park bench. While the setting might be unremarkable, Spain’s recent economic performance has been anything but.

Many Eurozone countries have limped into the new year with sluggish growth. Spain, however, has cemented its position as one of the continent’s fastest-growing economies, with GDP rising by 2.9 per cent in 2025. The figure is expected to remain above 2 per cent for the next few years – numbers that the likes of the UK, France and Germany can only dream of. The reasons for the upswing are many and varied, and include thriving sectors such as services and tourism. Much of it, however, is down to internal demand generated by a strengthening jobs market and a decision by the government to make it easier for foreigners to settle in the country. “One of the important influencing factors in this growth is our migration policies,” says Saiz.

A reform of the nation’s reglamento de extranjería (immigration regulations) that came into force last May could benefit as many as 900,000 new residents over three years, through an expanded visa system and a mechanism called the arraigo, which allows people to apply for residency through three routes: “family, employment and training”, according to the minister. Saiz – a member of the leftist Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), which governs in a minority coalition with the left-wing Sumar party – talks about migration as “a right” and “a question of values, human rights and ethical responsibility”. But there’s also a cannier element of realpolitik at play.

Like other southern European nations such as Italy and Greece, Spain has a rapidly ageing population and needs new workers to prop up the pensions system through socialsecurity contributions. Saiz, who has been in her role since late 2023, speaks of a “demographic winter” and says that the country needs 250,000 new workers a year from now until 2050 to maintain the welfare state. The government is working hard to attract them. In 2024, Spain admitted 368,000 new permanent migrants (including many from Latin America, who make up two-thirds of new legal residents via the arraigo), putting it in the top five of oecd countries in terms of numbers (the US tops the list). “Spain took a decision to be an open and prosperous country, not a closed and poor one,” says Saiz.

In 2025 the number of foreigners in the country’s workforce reached a historic high of more than three million – about 14 per cent of the in-work population – but, of course, not all entrants to the labour market are from overseas. Saiz is keen to talk about the government’s other achievements, such as helping more women into work, as well as increasing participation among under-thirties and over-fifties. And yet, though the economy is doing well, many Spaniards, like their European counterparts, believe that their leaders are out of step with the people on the subject. According to Spanish research institute, Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, immigration is Spain’s principal concern. It’s set to be a key issue in the next general election, which is scheduled for 2027.

Saiz says that these sentiments are generated by “disinformation and hoaxes” rather than analysis of the facts. “It’s curious that when you ask about people’s worries about migration, you’ll find that levels are at their highest – but when you ask whether they’re affected directly, that concern collapses,” she says. Yet there have been integration issues as Spain has become more diverse. Last summer, a mob took to the streets of Torre-Pacheco in Murcia in search of people of North African origin, after a pensioner was attacked in the town. It had been whipped up in part by a video on social media falsely attributed to the assault. One of the ministry’s jobs is to monitor online hate through a racism and xenophobia observatory known by the acronym Oberaxe.

Talk of disinformation allows Saiz to pivot to a subject that she clearly feels more comfortable discussing: what she refers to as the “forced narratives” generated by the two main opposition parties, the right-wing People’s Party (PP) and far-right Vox, which is led by firebrand Santiago Abascal. “What’s damaging is having a political opposition that doesn’t have a project for the country,” she says. Saiz cites the parliamentary right’s votes against labour-market reform, increasing the minimum wage and raising pensions – what she says amounts to “anti-politics”. She is equally scornful of the PP’s decision to oppose a bill – introduced to parliament after receiving more around 700,000 signatures from the public – that aimed to grant large-scale legalisation to immigrants living in Spain who fall outside the arraigo parameters. Frustrated at it being blocked by the opposition, the government took matters into its own hands in January – passing a mass normalisation law by royal decree that bypassed parliament that could see around 600,000 people granted residency for an initial one-year period, with the ability to work from day one. Applications will open in April and run through until the end of June, for those who have lived in Spain for at least five months and arrived before the end of last year. 

Still, a progressive government thwarted by a right wing bent on what Saiz calls “electoral calculations” is only a partial picture. Beyond the country’s rosy image and macroeconomic figures, significant structural challenges remain, meaning that jobs are being created but not for everyone. Despite record numbers of people in the formal economy – and very few empty positions, among the lowest in Europe – the situation for young people in the country remains precarious. One in four Spanish youths under the age of 25 is unemployed, considerably more than the EU average. Saiz rebuts this point by citing the significant progress that has been made in the past few years – as recently as 2015, youth unemployment stood at 49 per cent. There have also been improvements in everything from school dropout rates to scholarships.

She wants to make another thing very clear. “Someone from overseas doesn’t come and take a job from a Spanish national – nor do they take a house or public healthcare.” So do migrants work different jobs to the Spanish youth who find it hard to find an income? Instead, she would rather focus on education gains and the fact that young people today “are much better prepared than they were a few years ago”.

Despite Spain standing out as a progressive country with a government that is attempting to implement a pro-migration agenda, there remains a danger of selfinflicted damage. Its prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, might be heading his third government and have survived impropriety investigations into his wife and brother, but the PSOE has recently been engulfed in a double-headed scandal that has led some to question whether he can see out his full term. A corruption case over kickbacks has implicated the country’s former transport minister José Luis Ábalos and the PSOE’s now ex-secretary Santos Cerdán in what’s known as the Caso Koldo.

“Let whoever needs to pay, pay,” says Saiz, who would sooner cite the ongoing Montoro corruption case involving the PP’s former finance minister, as well as a scandal in 2018 that led to the same party’s former treasurer Luis Bárcenas receiving a 33-year prison sentence for fraud and money laundering.

But there is a fresher problem facing the psoe: a series of sexual harassment allegations made against party members in several Spanish regions. “It disgusts me to hear what we have learnt,” says Saiz, when pressed. “No woman, wherever she is, should have to live through situations like these.”

As for the possibility of early elections, the minister will hear nothing of the sort, responding with that deft political trick of answering a slightly different question to the one being asked. “We have a lot to do and, in Spain, terms of office last for four years,” she says. And then she is on her feet, bidding farewell with a kiss on each cheek, off to her next meeting.

In the West, both regular and irregular migration tends to be treated as a political threat. But if it’s managed wisely, the transnational movement of people need not be a risk and can, in fact, be a security asset.

The EU’s “Choose Europe for Science” initiative is targeted at foreign researchers, offering them grants, fellowships and relocation support to settle in the bloc. It’s aimed at the kind of human capital that underpins economic security, public health and defence-related research. When governments make talent flows transparent, meritocratic and beneficial, the political texture of migration shifts from threat to advantage.

Singapore also shows how clear pathways for skilled workers can bolster economic security while avoiding cultural anxieties. Its investment in digital infrastructure and industry partnerships invites talent and capital to set up permanent roots there. Meanwhile, Australia’s Pacific Engagement Visa creates legal, predictable routes for people from Pacific Island states facing climate risks.

Such programmes are small but they replace irregular movements with orderly migration that strengthens political ties and builds goodwill. These models all share clarity, conditionality and purpose. When migration systems are well designed and offer protection, legal mobility and visible returns for the host society, they undercut the chaotic narratives that far-right parties exploit. They also make migration an instrument of national security by adding skills to critical sectors and stabilising cities and regions.