Professor Kristin Surak

Kristin Surak is Professor of Political Sociology at LSE. Her research on global mobility, nationalism, and Japanese politics has been translated into over a dozen languages.

Her most recent book, The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires (Harvard University Press 2023), provides the first ethnographic analysis of the global market in the sale of citizenship to the wealthy. Her work on investment migration has informed reports by the IMF, OECD, ECCB, and European Parliament, and has been covered by the BBC, NPR, Foreign Affairs, and other news outlets around the world. She has held several internationally recognised positions, including Richard B. Fischer Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Fung Global Fellow at Princeton University, Sainsbury Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute for Japanese Arts and Cultures. She is a Lifetime Fellow of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, and has been a visiting professor at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and New York University in Abu Dhabi. The American Academy of Political and Social Science has recognised her scholarship, which has been funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Japan Foundation, Fulbright-Hays Foundation, and Leverhulme Foundation, among others. She comments regularly for the global media and her reserach has been covered by the New York Times, BBC, NPR, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Guardian, Economist, Foreign Affairs, Al Jazeera, Le Monde Diplomatique, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Asahi Newspaper, and other media outlets in over 30 countries.

Key expertise: Political Sociology; Japan; Elites; International Migration; Investment Migration; Golden Passports; Nationalism

Kristin's research on elite mobility, international migration, nationalism, and politics has been translated into over a dozen languages. In addition to publishing in major academic and intellectual journals, she also writes regularly for popular outlets, including the London Review of Books, Washington Post, the Guardian, New Statesman, and the Wall Street Journal. Her book Making Tea, Making Japan: Cultural Nationalism in Practice (Stanford University Press 2013) received a Book of the Year Award from within the American Sociological Association, and her most recent book, The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires, has been covered in the media in more than a dozen countries.

Kristin is part of the Politics and Human Rights research cluster.

Kristin teaches courses on Global Mobilities: International Migration and Politics and Society.

Newspaper Articles

2023. Surak, Kristin. “Turkish Citizenship is a Hot Commodity.” The Wall Street Journal. 8 September.

2023. Surak, Kristin. “Staatsbürgershaft für 250.000 Dollar.“ Tagesspiegel. 18 August.

2022. Surak, Kristin.  “Shinzo Abe Obituary.” The Guardian. 8 July.

2022. Surak, Kristin. “How the Shocking Assassination of Shinzo Abe Could Change Japan’s Constitution.” Evening Standard. 8 July.

2016. Surak, Kristin.“Serious About Relocating From Trump’s America? Here Are Your Exit Options.” The Washington Post. 15 November 15.

2015. Surak, Kristin.“受け入れにも積極的に” [Towards a Positive Reception (of refugees)]. Dōshin. P. 8, 23 November.

2014. Surak, Kristin. “保守化の懸念” [Concern About Increasing Conservativism]. Dōshin. P. 6, 17 December 17.