Ground-Breaking New Study Quantifies ‘Opportunity Advantage’ of Premium Education Coupled with Citizenship Rights

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LONDON, Feb. 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Leading international wealth advisory firm Henley & Partners has published pioneering new research into how first-class education, combined with expanded global access rights, creates significant opportunity for the next generation, growing their global networks, maximizing their career prospects, earning potential, and economic mobility for greater success and prosperity across their lifetimes.

The Henley Opportunity Index, a proprietary new benchmarking tool showcased in the firm’s inaugural Henley Education Report, quantifies the impact and probability of success that a premium education coupled with additional residence rights and/or alternative citizenships acquired through investment migration, can have on preserving and growing multi-generational wealth.

The first-of-its-kind index evaluates and scores the world’s leading residence and citizenship by investment programs across six parameters, including premium education and employment opportunities, earning potential, career advancement, economic mobility, and livability to provide a benchmark for investors, entrepreneurs, and wealthy families to compare and identify locations that offer the best ecosystems for future generations to advance their careers and maximize their income potential.

Dominic Volek, Group Head of Private Clients at Henley & Partners, says both education and investment migration are ‘inter-generational enablers’ and this is the first study of its kind that attempts to measure the comparative advantage of this potent combination. “Successfully balancing wealth generation and opportunity creation are key characteristics of ascendant economies. Our index helps guide families on tailored investment migration strategies to clear pathways for their children and heirs to access the world’s best schooling, most lucrative job markets, and enhanced quality of life through the privileges and flexibility of alternative residence and citizenship by investment options that give them the right to study, live, work, and invest in countries of their choice.”

The cumulative value of global access and education

Using the comparative function of the Henley Opportunity Index, a Filipino family whose total opportunity score sits at just 23% in their home country, could raise the probability of success for the next generation to 82% by accessing residence rights in the US through the US EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. Similarly, for a Vietnamese family on 24%, relocating to Switzerland through the Swiss Residence Program would increase their advantage to 85%, and for Nigerians with an opportunity score of just 14%, an investment in the Singapore Global Investor Program, which provides residence rights in the city state, would uplift their life chances by 65% to a remarkable 79%. Other investment options through the UAE Golden Visa and New Zealand’s new Active Investor Plus Visa could give youngsters from the west African nation an opportunity advantage of 63%, and 59%, respectively.

Similarly, for a South African family with Europe in their sights, investing in the Portugal Golden Residence Permit Program will realize compounded inter-generational benefits, as after five years of legal residence they can apply for citizenship, enabling them to live, work, or study anywhere in the EU. There are also notable gains in top-tier employment prospects (25/100 for South Africa versus 47 for Portugal — an 88% leap), and high livability (South Africa scores 40 and Portugal 61 — a 53% improvement), but the biggest advantage would be the dramatic increase in economic mobility (South Africa scores just 17/100 compared to Portugal’s 74 — an astonishing 335% enhancement).

As Tess Wilkinson, Director of Henley & Partners Education, points out in the report, education alone cannot guarantee opportunities in the future job market. “Investing in your child’s education is universally acknowledged as one of the best ways to set them up for success later in life, with multiple studies showing that those with tertiary qualifications earn around 50% more. However, economic research also shows over two-thirds of income variation between individuals globally is simply attributable to which country they live and work in. So, combining world-class academics with related residence or citizenship rights to access those lucrative job markets is key.”

According to exclusive research conducted for the report by Dr. José Caballero, Senior Economist at the IMD World Competitiveness Center in Switzerland, the cumulative effect of investment migration arises from the fact that the programs enable parents to migrate their children through permanent settlement. “In doing so, parents can provide greater education and professional opportunities without the hassles that acquiring a student and/or postgraduate visa entails. Those opportunities include access to premium primary and secondary education, greater opportunities for professional development, to live in an environment with a high quality of life, higher income prospects, and easier mobility across borders. Such access and opportunities facilitate the sustainability of family prosperity through greater probabilities of wealth creation and preservation by empowering the next generation with a more robust set of skills and capacities.”