Is Elon Musk Heading to Greece?

2025/07/03 Leave a comment

Funny appropriation of Musk’s troubles with Trump to promote a citizenship by investment program:

As Donald Trump threatens to deport Elon Musk from the US in response to the tech mogul’s criticism of the President’s ‘Big, Beautiful, Bill’ and speculation mounts and rumours swirl about Musk’s future, global mobility experts at Astons – leading specialists in Residency by Investment – are suggesting that Greece is the ideal next stop for the billionaire businessman.

While Musk’s future in the U.S. remains clouded in political uncertainty, should he be forced to relocate, Greece offers a compelling alternative for high-net-worth individuals. Astons argues that Musk would not only find a welcoming jurisdiction in Greece, but also a favourable tax regime and a Golden Visa programme uniquely suited to someone of his international business stature.

Why Greece? Tax Advantages for the Wealthy
Greece’s non-dom regime offers a fixed annual tax of €100,000 on global income for foreign investors who transfer their tax residency, regardless of actual income earned abroad. This can be extended to family members for an additional €20,000 each, allowing high-net-worth individuals to legally and efficiently manage their tax exposure.

Additionally, Greece has implemented tax exemptions for pensioners and incentives for remote workers, providing a wider ecosystem of support for internationally mobile professionals and business owners.

The Golden Visa Programme
Through a minimum real estate investment of €250,000, Greece’s Golden Visa programme grants residency rights to wealthy foreign investors and their families. The programme is immensely popular, especially among US citizens. In fact, recent research from Astons revealed that in the past year alone, the number of US applications for the Greek Golden Visa has increased by +52.6%

Greek residency also gives investors free access to the Schengen Zone and sets the groundwork for a potential upgrade to EU citizenship in the future. The program stands out as one of the most accessible and fast-moving Residency by Investment options in Europe.

A World-Class Lifestyle
Beyond financial benefits, Greece offers an enviable Mediterranean lifestyle. From the cosmopolitan allure of Athens to the island serenity of Mykonos and Crete, Greece boasts world-class cuisine, a rich cultural history, temperate climate, and excellent healthcare and education systems.

As the global elite continue to seek destinations that offer both security and opportunity, Greece has emerged as a serious contender for anyone rethinking their base of operations—Musk included.

Citizenship, residence permit, and real estate investment expert for Astons, Alena Lesina, commented:

“If Elon Musk is to leave the United States, there will be many countries happy to welcome him and his money with open arms.

There is always a chance he will choose to return to his native South Africa, but Musk is a shrewd businessman, so he’s going to want to move to a nation that respects the financial clout he brings with him and will give him space to keep growing his businesses.

Greece is the perfect destination for Elon Musk. Not only does it offer attractive tax rules for business people like him, it’s also located in the heart of the EU which will give him easy, unfettered access to the European business market.

This financial pragmatism is paired with a stunning lifestyle to rival any other destination in the world. So if Elon Musk is indeed compelled to leave America., Greece would not just welcome him—it would embrace someone of his business acumen, vision, and global influence”

Notes to Editors: –

Astons are leading international real estate experts on residency and citizenship through investment offering bespoke residence and citizenship solutions in the EU, the Caribbean, and other countries through property investment.
Astons have over 30 years of experience assisting individuals to successfully relocate their lives, lifestyles and companies through the complex world of global immigration law
Astons offer everything from residency and citizenship, to legal support and guidance on worldwide property investment.
Astons is a leading global investment migration and luxury real estate company specializing in bespoke residency, citizenship, and premium real estate solutions in more than 11 countries.
Founded in 1989, Astons provides a comprehensive suite of services for HNW clients with a worldwide footprint of offices in London, Dubai, Istanbul, Limassol, Athens, Fort Lauderdale, and Saint Julians.

Filed under Citizenship, citizenship-by-investment Tagged with , ,

Une réflexion sur la laïcité dans les cégeps s’impose

2025/07/03 Leave a comment

Discussion of some of the excesses of student organizations:

….« Comment peut-on considérer qu’une salle de prière constitue un droit acquis dans un collège qui doit respecter les articles 2 et 3 de la Loi sur la laïcité de l’État stipulant que les principes de la laïcité doivent être respectés en fait et en apparence ? » demandent avec raison les enquêteurs.

En effet, bien que les établissements d’enseignement supérieur ne soient pas soumis à la directive du ministère de l’Éducation (MEQ) interdisant les pratiques religieuses dans les écoles, ceux-ci sont néanmoins tenus de respecter les principes de la laïcité, dont la neutralité religieuse. Mais voilà, l’ambiguïté persiste : la neutralité religieuse consiste-t-elle à accommoder toutes les religions, ou bien à n’en accommoder aucune ? Concrètement, dans le cas des lieux de prière, faut-il, comme le suggère l’agente des services sociaux du collège Vanier, répondre aux demandes religieuses des étudiants de toutes les confessions ou bien, comme l’exprime clairement la directive du MEQ, n’en considérer aucune ?

Dans cette directive du MEQ, on peut lire que « l’aménagement de lieux utilisés à des fins de pratiques religieuses dans une école […] est incompatible avec le principe de la neutralité religieuse de l’État ». L’interdiction de salles de prière y est notamment justifiée par le respect de la liberté de conscience des élèves qui doivent être protégés contre les pressions directes ou indirectes les incitant à se conformer à une pratique religieuse, et parce que de tels accommodements sont de nature à entraver le bon fonctionnement des écoles.

Tous ces arguments sont également valables pour les cégeps. Bien que plus âgés, les étudiants sont pour la plupart toujours mineurs à leur arrivée au collège. Par ailleurs, on ne peut ignorer que ces salles de prière ne sont pas toujours des lieux de recueillement paisibles, mais deviennent parfois des foyers de radicalisation et des lieux de recrutement pour des conflits à l’étranger.

Songeons, par exemple, au collège de Maisonneuve, qui fut, en 2015, le foyer de recrutement d’étudiants pour le djihad en Syrie. Afin de répondre à leur demande, la direction du cégep avait mis à la disposition des étudiants une salle pour les prières du vendredi, ce qui n’a fait qu’alimenter le climat de radicalisation, de repli communautaire et de méfiance réciproque à l’intérieur du cégep.

En conclusion de leur rapport, les enquêteurs recommandent de « mettre en place les mécanismes appropriés afin de s’assurer du respect et de l’application des articles 2 et 3 de la Loi sur la laïcité de l’État ». On ne peut que seconder cette recommandation ! Mais encore faut-il que la neutralité religieuse soit clairement définie, non pas comme une porte ouverte à toutes les demandes religieuses, mais bien comme l’absence de toute reconnaissance de celles-ci et du prosélytisme religieux dans les cégeps.

Et pour commencer, aucune accréditation ne devrait être accordée à un club étudiant à vocation religieuse. Du reste, la Loi sur les cégeps ne prévoit aucunement une telle chose.

Source: Une réflexion sur la laïcité dans les cégeps s’impose

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Christopher Dummitt: Canada’s long-standing tradition of sweeping its British roots under the rug

2025/07/03 Leave a comment

Good reminder of the need for a broader historical understanding:

….Canadian schools got rid of the Lord’s prayer a generation ago. It didn’t fit with a modern diverse Canada. It has been replaced by land acknowledgments.

There was a time, not too long ago, when the school system didn’t operate this way — when Indigenous history and contemporary concerns were not a major focus. There has been a lot of progress to rethink how we approach the Canadian past.

But there’s also the Canadian tradition of turning a good thing into a stupid mess.

These young children know that they need to respect Indigenous cultures — and know that these cultures were sophisticated and fascinating. That’s what they’ve learned.

But what they don’t have are the lessons from an earlier time that would balance out this new appreciation. Instead, their lessons speak against an earlier way of thinking about the country. Without that earlier knowledge, what these kids are getting is the now off-balanced focus on reconciliation, relationships to the land, and inclusivity.

What they lack is the broader story of the settler societies that created Canada — about the dynamism of centuries of progress from the Scientific Revolution to the Enlightenment to the creation of modern forms of democracy, liberalism, and parliamentary institutions. Yet, this isn’t part of the elementary curriculum.

This isn’t the fault of any individual teacher (many of whom are wonderful).

It is, though, about the excesses of a cultural shift — well-intentioned — but also clueless as to its unintended consequences.

This Canada Day, perhaps it’s time to take a lot of the knowledge that’s baked into those pioneer villages dotted across the country and put it back into the curriculum.

Source: Christopher Dummitt: Canada’s long-standing tradition of sweeping its British roots under the rug

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Adams and Parkin: Our elbows may be up, but have Canadians really changed?

2025/07/02 Leave a comment

Notable shift:

…Even more concerning, our continuing social values research has picked up a striking mood shift in Canada over the past two years (originating before the start of Mr. Trump’s second term), in the direction of a more hard-nosed survival-of-the-fittest mindset. We’ve become less willing to prioritize progressive ideals – such as openness to immigration, gender equality and environmental sustainability – ahead of material concerns such as financial security. This is true particularly of younger Canadians, and also of first- and second-generation immigrants whose shift of support to the Conservative Party in the Toronto suburbs cost the Liberals their majority in the recent election (and could cost them victory in the next one if the same mood prevails). 

We arrive then at Canada Day after months of profound anxiety and significant political change that oddly haven’t changed us that much. We are still the same country facing the same centrifugal challenges with new ones added to the mix. If and when the threat from the U.S. subsides, a long list of other thorny problems will come into clearer view.

All the more reason to welcome Canada Day – yes, to celebrate, take a break from politics and world events, and count our blessings in the company of family and friends, but also to rest up and ready ourselves to take on more challenges ahead.

Source: Our elbows may be up, but have Canadians really changed?

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Canada’s multicultural ideal is fraying. This is how we hold on to it

2025/07/02 Leave a comment

Not a bad take:

What does Canada owe its immigrants? And what do immigrants owe Canada? This unspoken contract, rooted in mutual respect and opportunity, has defined our national identity for decades. It now feels strained.

To strengthen it, we must learn to manage contradictions without facing the ruptures seen in other liberal democracies. And we must acknowledge the deepening sense of anxiety, injustice, and exclusion that many Canadians now feel. This requires more than slogans about unity. It demands policies that protect vulnerable communities, education that teaches context, and leaders who resist the temptation to pander to outrage. It also requires moral imagination to make space for different stories, different hopes and different griefs, without turning from the work that justice demands, and without forcing false equivalence. It also requires a daily choice: for Canadians to remain curious about each other’s histories, and for immigrants to invest in the civic fabric of their adopted home.

I write this not as someone who claims to speak for every immigrant. I can’t. My family’s story is just one thread in Canada’s immigrant fabric. But I know what it feels like to carry the weight of a name across continents. I know what it means to feel both grateful and unmoored, proud and uncertain.

Canada does not promise a life without tension. It promises something harder — and better. The chance to sit at a kitchen table, decades from now, with snow falling outside, and to tell your children: We didn’t run from the past. We built a future strong enough to hold it.

Arjun Gupta is a law student at the University of Ottawa. 

Source: Canada’s multicultural ideal is fraying. This is how we hold on to it

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AI Review of “The New Electoral Map and Diversity”

2025/07/02 Leave a comment

Interesting to read an AI Review of my Hill Times article The New Electoral Map and Diversity. Reasonable take:

….Summary of the Work

The manuscript offers a detailed examination of Canada’s reconfigured electoral map—now totalling 343 ridings—and its impact on the representation of immigrants, visible and religious minorities, and Indigenous peoples. It provides a side-by-side comparison of the 2013 and 2023 ridings using data on population percentages. Key insights focus on how demographic shifts, driven particularly by higher immigration rates, have yielded notable changes in suburban regions with an increase in ridings that have between 5% and 20% visible or religious minorities, while Indigenous representation shows a slight downward share of population in certain ridings.

The author highlights how these shifts may manifest in future elections—particularly 2025—when a new cohort of naturalized citizens will become eligible voters. This could lead to both an increase in elected minority candidates and the need for political parties to navigate the interests and tensions of increasingly diverse ridings.

Strengths

  1. Clarity of Data Presentation:
    • The manuscript uses clear tables and figures (e.g., Figures 1 through 7) to illustrate changes across various demographic groups, offering a robust breakdown of regional and group-based shifts.
  2. Timely Focus:
    • With a federal election looming and ongoing immigration trends, the study delivers an immediate perspective on how the new electoral map might influence representation and campaign strategies.
  3. Comprehensive Scope:
    • The analysis considers multiple forms of diversity—visible minorities, religious minorities, and Indigenous populations—providing a well-rounded view of demographic changes.
  4. Relevance for Policy and Electoral Strategy:
    • By noting the shifting landscapes of marginal ridings and growth areas, the manuscript offers insights valuable to policymakers, political parties, and electoral reform advocates.

Areas for Further Development

  1. Methodological Transparency:
    • While the descriptive statistics are informative, clarifying the exact data sources (e.g., census data files and how the boundaries were mapped from 2013 to 2023) would bolster replicability. A brief discussion of how ridings were reallocated from old to new boundaries would further help readers understand the transition.
  2. Intersectional Analysis:
    • The manuscript could benefit from an intersectional lens, exploring how demographic factors (e.g., visible minority status combined with religious identification) may yield complex patterns. Currently, the study addresses religious and visible minorities separately; acknowledging overlaps may provide deeper insights.
  3. Electoral Outcomes and Voter Turnout:
    • Adding potential scenarios or brief references to how these demographic changes may affect turnout or party competition could supplement the descriptive findings. While this is outside the primary scope, a short reflection could give a sense of real-world impact.
  4. Indigenous Context:
    • Further elaboration on how growth in immigrant populations may affect Indigenous communities could strengthen the discussion. These points are alluded to, but additional depth on policy or community-level implications would clarify the evolving political dynamic.
  5. Longitudinal Comparisons:
    • If longer-term data (beyond the 2013 to 2023 cycles) are available, referencing previous realignments or older demographic snapshots could confirm whether the highlighted trends are accelerating, plateauing, or changing in nature.

Style and Structure

The manuscript is mostly well-organized, with clear headings and subheadings. However, some sections can be streamlined for readability:

• Figures and text could be more closely integrated. For instance, highlighting main findings from a figure in the paragraph immediately following that figure helps the reader connect the visuals to the written analysis.
• Where tables and figures convey similar data, consider whether both formats are necessary or whether they could be combined.

Overall Impression

This work significantly contributes to the understanding of how newly created ridings intersect with demographic changes, underscoring shifts for multiple minority groups and offering a snapshot of potential impacts ahead of the 2025 election. By expanding the methodological detail and further situating these findings within longer-term trends or intersectional dimensions of representation, the manuscript would offer an even more robust resource for analysts, political parties, and community stakeholders interested in the evolving face of Canadian democracy.

Source: AI Review of “The New Electoral Map and Diversity”

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DOJ announces plans to prioritize cases to revoke citizenship

2025/07/02 2 Comments

One thing if crimes etc before becoming a citizen, another if it is post-citizenship crime etc:

The Justice Department is aggressively prioritizing efforts to strip some Americans of their U.S. citizenship.

Department leadership is directing its attorneys to prioritize denaturalization in cases involving naturalized citizens who commit certain crimes — and giving district attorneys wider discretion on when to pursue this tactic, according to a June 11 memo published online. The move is aimed at U.S. citizens who were not born in the country; according to data from 2023, close to 25 million immigrants were naturalized citizens.

At least one person has already been denaturalized in recent weeks. On June 13, a judge ordered the revocation of the citizenship of Elliott Duke, who uses they/them pronouns. Duke is an American military veteran originally from the U.K. who was convicted for distributing child sexual abuse material — something they later admitted they were doing prior to becoming a U.S. citizen.

Denaturalization is a tactic that was heavily used during the McCarthy era of the late 1940’s and the early 1950’s and one that was expanded during the Obama administration and grew further during President Trump’s first term. It’s meant to strip citizenship from those who may have lied about their criminal convictions or membership in illegal groups like the Nazi party, or communists during McCarthyism, on their citizenship applications.

Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate wrote in the memo that pursuing denaturalization will be among the agency’s top five enforcement priorities for the civil rights division.

“The Civil Division shall prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence,” he said.

The focus on denaturalization is just the latest step by the Trump administration to reshape the nation’s immigration system across all levels of government, turning it into a major focus across multiple federal agencies. That has come with redefining who is let into the United States or has the right to be an American. Since his return to office, the president has sought to end birthright citizenship and scale back refugee programs.

But immigration law experts expressed serious concerns about the effort’s constitutionality, and how this could impact families of naturalized citizens.

Source: DOJ announces plans to prioritize cases to revoke citizenship

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U.S. Supreme Court ruling jeopardizes birthright citizenship

2025/07/02 Leave a comment

More on the SCOTUS decision:

….Many legal scholars doubt the Trump tactic, and argue that what the words say is what the amendment means. But the Trump administration argues that the context of the 14th amendment – part of a flurry of changes in American life after the Civil War that tore the country apart geographically, culturally, economically, and morally – means that the language reflected a specific moment in time and a specific circumstance. They argue that the 19th-century amendment doesn’t apply to far different 21st-century circumstances. 

The irony is that many of those who support that position also embrace a “strict constructionist” view of the Constitution, urging in other cases that the words of the founding American document (which includes the 25 amendments that followed) are to be taken literally, shorn of context or interpretation.

The Supreme Court’s decision actually said nothing about birthright citizenship. It merely argued that, as Justice Amy Coney Barrett put it, excesses by the executive branch can’t be stanched by excesses of the judicial branch. That means that lower-court judges skeptical of, or opposed to, Trump policies cannot invalidate those initiatives.

The fact that the court test involved the Trump birthright citizenship case opened the administration to pursue its original intention, the denial of citizenship to some children of migrants and to make them vulnerable to deportation. This was an especially important target to the administration because of its view that large numbers of migrants were having children in the U.S., or coming to the country, for the express purpose of rendering their children American citizens.

A May study by the Migration Policy Institute at Penn State University found that, if Mr. Trump prevailed, about 255,000 children born on U.S. soil each year would be denied American citizenship.

The Supreme Court likely will rule on birthright citizenship in its next term, which begins in October, though it is possible some of the suits already filed may prompt it to make a swifter ruling. …

Source: U.S. Supreme Court ruling jeopardizes birthright citizenship

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Happy Canada Day/Bonne fête du Canada

2025/07/01 Leave a comment

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What is birthright citizenship and what happens after the Supreme Court ruling?

2025/06/30 Leave a comment

Ongoing and further undermining of checks and balances:

After the Supreme Court issued a ruling that limits the ability of federal judges to issue universal injunctions — but didn’t rule on the legality of President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship — immigrant rights groups are trying a new tactic by filing a national class action lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two immigrant rights organizations whose members include people without legal status in the U.S. who “have had or will have children born in the United States after February 19, 2025,” according to court documents.

One of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, William Powell, senior counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law, says his colleagues at CASA, Inc. and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project think that, with the class action approach “we will be able to get complete relief for everyone who would be covered by the executive order.”

Source: What is birthright citizenship and what happens after the Supreme Court ruling?

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