DESPITE hosting the headquarters of major international humanitarian organizations, such as the International Red Cross, the prosperous Swiss are not renowned for their liberality. In particularly they operate one of the strictness regimes when it comes to allowing foreigners to live in their country.
Even great wealth is no guarantee of acquiring Swiss residence, though by and large it does indeed prove helpful. When it comes to Swiss citizenship, the rules have been complex and highly restrictive. One Swiss commentator said that its was not simply a question of avoiding the impact of rapid growth in the existing 8.3 million population: as a long-standing neutral state, Switzerland wanted to avoid any emotional loss of neutrality by importing too many outsiders who would affect the traditional way of doing things. Thus, unlike in other parts of Europe, Swiss residence and citizenship rules are not predominantly informed by Islamophobia — the Swiss are leery of all foreigners, even though around a quarter of people living in the country are immigrants. There is an anti-immigrant Swiss People’s Party (SVP) which showed well in 2015 general elections but their bigotry did not influence voters in a key decision on Sunday.
But now, in one of the referenda that characterize Swiss democracy, voters have agreed to simplify the rules. Even someone born in the country to non-Swiss parents has had no automatic right to citizenship. The general rule is that such a person must wait for a dozen years before applying to become Swiss and even then the process is difficult. Expensive tests and interviews at both state and local level seek to establish that an applicant is truly integrated into the Swiss way of life.
As of Sunday’s vote, these tests will no longer be required for anyone who is a third generation immigrant whose parents and grandparents have lived in the country without a break. On paper this could mean that an immigrant family might have to live in Switzerland for around 50 years before one of its young people will be naturalized without tests.
However limiting Swiss immigration rules are, at least voters are clear that they should be sensible and proportionate. It would appear that at least a third of Dutch voters are rather different. Polls show that the openly anti-Muslim Freedom Party of Geert Wilders which promises to “de-Islamize” the Netherlands and ban the Holy Qur’an is gathering increasing support and is on track to win the largest number of seats in next month’s general election. Mainstream parties have abandoned the once-treasured Dutch principles of tolerance and fairness and moved to the right to try and outbid Wilders in extremist policies.
Dutch proportional representation means that all governments are coalitions and no party can ever rule alone. His political opponents have vowed not to enter into any coalition with Wilders and his race hate party. The extent of their determination remains to be seen. Though Belgium went without a government for 19 months and seemed to suffer no harm, the idea of Holland being caught in such political standoff is unthinkable. Fresh elections are more likely, at which point it must be hoped that Dutch voters will come to their senses and consign the hideous Wilders and his hate-filled Freedom Party to political oblivion.
