From Migration in Geographic Space to Migration in Biographic Time: Views From Europe *

FROM a global perspective, two facts are worth noting from the outset. First, a person’s place of birth is the single most powerful predictor of that person’s lifetime income and other components of overall welfare. Second, this distributional pattern is largely unrelated to the person’s decisions, effort, ambition, or productive contribution, as one’s place of birth is of course entirely beyond one’s control and, in most cases, beyond the control of one’s parents as well. The vast majority of people inherit the citizenship of their birth place. As a result, the acquisition of citizenship and the privileges and disadvantages tied to it have been described as a giant “birthright lottery.” Some, if born in the advanced societies of the global West and North (which includes some prosperous societies of the Asia-Pacific region), benefit from the infrastructural and civilizational accomplishments that have accumulated in these regions over many generations. Others, born into countries where such accumulation has not taken place (or perhaps was even prevented from taking place as a consequence of colonialism), have mostly to accept and live with the conditions that prevail in the global South, that is, much of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In both cases, inherited citizenship is, on average, highly consequential for a person’s life-long well-being and is arguably one of the most consequential assets or liabilities of a person.