This chapter gives a detailed account of the golden visa (GV) programmes in Greece and Portugal, including their rise, possible fall, and current development. We emphasize the effects of the subordinate position of both countries within Europe, austerity measures as the result of financial crisis, and the financialization of the housing market. Against this background, this chapter explores how Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI), tax reforms, the changing housing market, and booming tourism have motivated Chinese GV investors to migrate to Greece and Portugal. Observing the coexistence of both investment-oriented and migration-oriented GV applicants, we argue for a more holistic understanding of their incentives. Apart from rich Chinese investors, the GV programmes also accommodate middle-class Chinese citizens who do not fit the typical categories of Chinese migration to Europe, which is often polarized between wealthy or highly-skilled elites and less-skilled economic migrants. For upwardly mobile middle-class Chinese, GV s are an affordable strategy to leave China. Thus, this chapter also investigates why China has become the largest source of GV holders in these Southern European countries.

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