UAE overtakes Israel to become Middle East’s best nationality

The UAE has overtaken Israel for the first time to lead the Middle East in a quality of nationality index produced by citizenship firm Henley & Partners.

The emirates climbed three places to 46th in the 2017 ranking, having risen 13 positions over the last five years after receiving visa-free travel access to the European Union’s Schengen Area in 2016 and other benefits.

In comparison Israel stood in 48th on the ranking, which scores the relative worth of nationalities based on human development, economic strength, peace and stability and diversity and weight of settlement and travel freedom.

“Both the value of European nationality overall and the value of UK nationality in particular are in gradual decline, especially in relation to faster-growing economies such as China, the UAE, and the US, whose nationalities continue to increase in value each year,” said report author and citizenship law professor Dr Dimitry Kochenov.

Among the other Gulf countries, Kuwait dropped from 72nd to 82nd, Qatar from 70th to 87th, Saudi Arabia from 82nd to 89th, Oman from 83rd to 90th and Bahrain from 84th to 90th.

“The Kuwaiti nationality experienced a modest loss in value in 2017, which did, however, result in a 10-position drop on the general ranking, partly because other nationalities simply performed better,” Henley said.

“With its external value remaining roughly equal, the level of human development in Kuwait decreased slightly, and the level of peace and stability decreased measurably.”

Qatar’s fall down the rankings followed a regional divide that has seen Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt close diplomatic, trade and transport links.

“In fact, despite a relatively strong starting point (56th place in 2013), the Qatari nationality has dropped more significantly over time than war-torn and unstable Libya, Syria, and Iraq,” Henley said.

Read: Qatar joins Gulf war games in Saudi under apparent compromise

“Its free-fall to 87th place in 2017 represents a 31-position decrease in total since 2013.”

The overall ranking was led by France, which claimed the top spot from Germany. Iceland and Denmark stood in third and fourth followed by the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland and Austria.

The global mean score with 39.28 per cent in 2017 compared to 39.32 per cent the previous year.