Why Citizenship Is Becoming a Greater Consideration in Global Family Life  

For the world’s most internationally minded families, the way life is organized has changed fundamentally.  

Careers span continents. Children study in one country and build businesses in another. Philanthropic interests cross borders. Family structures extend across multiple jurisdictions as a matter of course.  

The legal and financial frameworks supporting these families have largely adapted to this reality. Tax structures are cross-border. Succession considerations span jurisdictions. Asset holding is deliberately diversified.  

And yet one element consistently arrives late to the conversation.  

Citizenship — the most permanent legal status an individual holds — has historically been treated as a given. Something inherited rather than actively considered. For families whose lives now extend far beyond the borders of a single country, that assumption is increasingly difficult to sustain.  

For most internationally mobile families, residency is the natural starting point.  

European frameworks — across Portugal, Greece, Malta, Latvia, Italy, and others — provide legal access to a country and broader regional benefits, supporting lifestyle flexibility, educational opportunities, and time spent across multiple jurisdictions.  

For many families, a well-structured European residency provides exactly what is needed: flexibility without permanent commitment, optionality without irreversible decisions.  

But residency and citizenship are not interchangeable — and families with long planning horizons eventually feel that distinction.  

As Joe Rice, Head of Citizenship at Global Citizen Solutions, explains:  

“Many families reach a point where they realize that residency alone doesn’t fully reflect the international nature of their lives. The conversation then moves towards broader considerations — mobility, access, cross-border planning, and ensuring their families have long-term flexibility regardless of how circumstances evolve.”  

Residency is conditional — subject to renewal, policy continuity, and regulatory change. Citizenship operates on different terms. It is permanent, not conditional. It does not require renewal or depend on program continuity.  

In an increasingly fragmented and unstable global landscape, that permanence carries a fundamentally different kind of value — one that compounds across generations in ways that no renewable status can replicate.  

The shift in how citizenship is understood is well documented — and it is accelerating.  

Research from the Altrata World Ultra Wealth Report shows that approximately 19.6% of ultra-high-net-worth individuals are foreign-born, around 20% of global billionaires were born outside their country of current residence, and 34% obtained at least one degree outside their country of birth.  

As Laura Madrid, Lead Researcher at the Global Intelligence Unit, noted on our BeGlobal Podcast, even states are reflecting this shift: in the 1960s, only one-third of countries permitted dual citizenship. As of 2025, more than 65% of nations allow it.  

For Patricia Casaburi, CEO of Global Citizen Solutions, this reflects a fundamental shift in how globally mobile families think — from citizenship as a national identity to citizenship as part of a deliberate portfolio strategy, where rights to live, bank, travel, and be taxed are assembled jurisdiction by jurisdiction to suit evolving circumstances.  

The legal structures supporting these families have adapted. Consideration of citizenship, in many cases, has not kept pace. That gap is becoming harder to ignore.  

For some families, that gap closes gradually — often without a single trigger. It is less a decision made at a fixed point and more a realization that arrives over time, as international lives become more complex, planning horizons extend, and the question of what provides genuine long-term continuity becomes harder to ignore.  

For most internationally mobile families, the discussion ends with residency. It provides the flexibility, mobility, and long-term optionality they need without requiring a permanent change in legal status.  

For a much smaller group, however, the conversation evolves further. As international ties deepen over time—through business, philanthropy, long-term residence, or sustained engagement with a particular jurisdiction—citizenship may become a natural extension of a broader global strategy rather than a standalone objective.  

It is within that context that discretionary citizenship frameworks become relevant. They are not designed for the majority of globally mobile families, but for exceptional individuals whose circumstances and contributions warrant consideration.  

For most families, residency arrangements fully support their long-term needs. In a smaller number of cases — individuals with highly international profiles, long-standing connections to specific jurisdictions, and sustained contributions across professional, philanthropic, or civic domains — the conversation may extend further.  

In rare and exceptional circumstances, individuals may be considered under discretionary citizenship frameworks assessed on a strictly case-by-case basis.  

One such framework in Europe is Malta’s Citizenship by Merit provision, which exists under Maltese legislation and has been in place since 2017. Following legal developments at EU level in 2025, Malta’s previous citizenship framework was repealed, and the current approach operates on a fully discretionary basis.  

Each case is assessed individually by the competent Maltese authorities under applicable law. There are no fixed criteria, no predetermined outcomes, and no guaranteed eligibility. All assessments are made at the sole discretion of the relevant authorities, based on a holistic evaluation of an individual’s circumstances and contribution.  

As Joe Rice observed on our BeGlobal Podcast, the frameworks that endure are those that answer, “not just how much, but to what end.” Malta’s Citizenship by Merit approach reflects this philosophy — focusing entirely on individual contribution rather than transactional considerations.  

For the individuals whose circumstances genuinely warrant such consideration, it represents a reflection of a life already deeply connected to a place.  

Citizenship is not replacing residency, nor is it a universal consideration. For many families, existing nationality structures fully support their circumstances and future plans.  

But for internationally mobile families with complex, multi-jurisdictional lives, citizenship is increasingly part of a broader reflection on stability, belonging, and continuity across generations — approached not as a transaction, but as the most permanent expression of a deliberate and considered plan.  

The families who navigate this most successfully are those who begin the conversation early, think broadly, and treat legal status with the same care they apply to every other dimension of their international lives.