Would YOU like to become a Hungarian citizen?

As talks continue over foreign aid in the Eurozone, Hungary has taken control of its foreign aid by offering permanent residency and citizenship to those outsiders who invest at least 250,000 euros in purchasing Hungarian government bonds.

The ploy to manufacture foreign aid and investment hints at our class discussion the other day in response to Professor Anderson’s talk on trade with culturally similar populations in different countries. This isn’t implicit in the article, but I have to wonder, are the Hungarian economists and lawmakers behind this legislation hoping that once Hungarian citizens (you don’t have to actually live in Hungary) will continue to contribute past their initial investment if they are demographically and psychologically linked to the country?

The proposal for continuing aid because of sociological ties might have merit, but it seems to me like a stretch. Hungary, like much of the Eurozone, is strapped for aid and investment. The Reuters article mentions that “Budapest has asked for a financing backstop from the EU and the International Monetary Fund, but talks are dragging on.” Hungary has taken matters into its own hands given its projected lack of assistance. Note the inclusion of the IMF: implicit in the discussion is a lack of faith in the ability of the IMF to help the country. Given that the U.S. dominates the IMF, does the Hungarian legislation suggest a denunciation of the ability of the U.S. to distribute aid?

The article continues on and describes the focus on “trying to attract major new investors from Asia.” Because “the move…is designed to attract new investors, especially from China,” the implication is that Hungary is appealing to a new order of world power in which the United States is not solely dominant.

And yet perhaps the Chinese are simply more willing to invest in real estate and retail markets, as the article suggests, than their American counterparts. If so, it makes sense to appeal to the Asian market rather than the United States, regardless of who appears as more capable of distributing large amounts of foreign aid. The article hasn’t dominated the headlines, but the discussion of foreign aid in class can through the article be linked to a larger questioning of the changing international roles for the world’s superpower(s).