Swissitude and the paradox that is Switzerland

Posted by masterwriter on November 28th, 2007

 I have lived here for many years now.  In fact I have lived here longer than the years I spent growing up in England.  I am married to a Swiss and I suppose although my heart will always be in England, this is home to me although the truth of the matter is for how long.

And this is due to the paradox that is Switzerland.  It is wonderful but has become frustratingly worrisome.

Quality, security, stability, prosperity, democracy are adjectives that are often used to describe Switzerland and rightly so.  I would even add diversity: the languages, the cultures and as Patrick Aebischer the President of the EPFL says “Who else can boast of making the best chocolate and the best medicine?”  Alpine cabines, picturesque untouched landscapes sit alongside companies such as Logitech and Nestlé and a country that produces the winners of the Americas cup is also responsible for the Red Cross. 

Then let us look over the fence and more precisely at the UDC’s  – campaign poster (above).   This poster caused the UN’s special rapporteur on racism to ask for an official explanation from the government.

This is what the Independent newspaper reported this week:

“The party has launched a campaign to raise the 100,000 signatures necessary to force a referendum to reintroduce into the penal code a measure to allow judges to deport foreigners who commit serious crimes once they have served their jail sentence.  But far more dramatically, it has announced its intention to lay before parliament a law allowing the entire family of a criminal under the age of 18 to be deported as soon as sentence is passed. It will be the first such law in Europe since the Nazi practice of Sippenhaft – kin liability – whereby relatives of criminals were held responsible for their crimes and punished equally.”

Scary stuff.  Made in Switzerland starts to take on a new dimension. I look around my village and think are there UDC voters in my village who want me out too?  My own slogan for their poster would read:  Greater Insecurity for foreigners.

I love living here for the lifestyle, the location in the middle of Europe, the fact that when it snows it stays, the strong work ethic and efficiency. I hate the inherent chauvinism -  the workmen who take one look at me and ask if my husband is home; the Swiss mistrust and standoffishness.  Swissitude is a great thing and audacity when it is not offensive, is to be applauded, but I have noticed something else is creeping in -a faint swaggering and a wiff of arrogance. This is a country with a population of 19.3 percent of foreigners and relies heavily on foreign workers.  Here in the French speaking part they make up one-third of Geneva’s population.  So treat them well.

Switzerland, I fear,  is getting just a little too big for its boots.

Copyright Jules Ritter November 2007 

PS I PUT THIS BLOG ON THE TRIBUNE DE GENEVE SITE.  TO DATE I HAVE HAD OVER 40 COMMENTS SEE www.julesritter.blog.tdg.ch and check under the English corner section under blogs.

Living in Switzerland, Most Popular Posts 3 Comments

Jules said,

November 29, 2007 @ 7:18 am

This is what Graham sent to me by email, I can’t believe he was too shy to put it here… It sums up the other side brilliantly. Graham is in the throes of starting his own blog which we can all look forward to.

Dear Jules,

You have a right to your opinion and I’m glad you published it. Bravo.

Nobody wants you out – unless you commit a crime, and you, like I, carry a red passport with a white cross so they can hardly frog-march us to the border can they?

We live in nice little villages where sometimes the ways and whims of the locals take a bit of understanding – but the villages are theirs, and if a workman asks to see the man of the house, that is customary politeness. It is not condescending.

The UDC position is not one of kicking out every Johnny Foreigner working in the country. But the UDC solution of parental responsibility is terrifying. (It has also been proposed as a deterrent to youth crime in the UK, although deportation has not yet been threatened). Deporting a whole family for the stupidity of an adolescent seems unreasonable and implausible when we look around our circle of friends in our sheltered lifestyle until we develop
the argument. A family of 12 squatting illegally in two rooms of a Zurich tower block living on theft. The asylum seeking “sans papiers” cocaine barons who live in state run hostels. Or, and now comes the crunch, the 17 year old son of a rich European banker living in Cologny who shows off to his friends with dad’s new Jag and mows down a little old lady. Who is most likely to get the boot?

We both have friends here who are “foreigners”. Honest, kind and affluent expats who, for the most part, have worked hard, earned a crust and live by the rules. I don’t frequent, and I’m sure you don’t, North African and Eastern European criminals or illegal immigrants – the people most likely to incur the wrath of the UDC, but they are here, and their numbers are rapidly increasing because of the laxity of the current laws.

I have difficulty in understanding why professional and useful people… you know, “nice” people like us… can’t get permits when drug dealers, beggars, prostitutes and thieves cross the borders with ease in total legality to disrupt our “comfy” lives. That is the mess the UDC wants to clean up. Having said that, I’m sure that our little gang of “nice” people include a fair number of tax dodgers, fraudsters, rogue bankers and bogus financiers who, hopefully, the UDC will come down upon in the second wave.

I am happy and comforted to see that the Swiss want to maintain this isle of tranquility in the sea of crime, violence, immigrant and racial turmoil that is Europe today. The French and Brits are making the same noises as the Swiss. Italy, Spain and Germany sympathize.

As for the poster, and as someone who has been involved with graphic arts for many years, I can only say that it tells a story. Politically incorrect it certainly is and that is why it has been banned. But the understanding is in the eye of the beholder. Kicking out coloured people, or kicking out those who don’t fit. Let’s not pretend we don’t know what it really meant, and to be honest I’m glad it is off the walls, I found it embarrassing.
But you must agree, it was bloody brilliant. Two colours and a simple childish outline told the story a thousand words couldn’t.

My dear Jules. We are very privileged to be living here.

G.

masterwriter said,

November 29, 2007 @ 9:04 pm

I put this blog on the Tribune de Genève English page. Read some of the comments:

I have no issues about foreigners/immigrants who are working hard, and following the rules and laws…I have many foreign friends, and I am not racist by any means. But this is my country.
The trouble makers should be kicked out of the country, end of story. Why would we have to deal with these kind of people? There are tons of great immigrants in this country who bring as much or even more than Swiss citizens.
BUT, Why should we be paying for A-holes who take advantage of the system, and their citizens. Example : Welfare
Why should we be paying for them to stay in our country, or even pay for them to be jailed? The bad people should be sent back home. Period.
As for kids below the age of 18yo who get involved in serious crimes (murder, rape, assault), I am all about the law to kick the whole family out, if necessary. Get the parents more involved and be responsible for their kids and their actions, it will help them keep their kids on the right track.
People who complain about Switzerland, can pack their bags, and go back in their home land. It’s that simple!!!

by Julien | 29/11/2007 | 17:05

Julien, you say that your are not racist .. perhaps you should read the definition a little bit more.
Good foreigners who work hard, no pb, but without the same rights of course, without the same laws, whithout the same pay, and familly punishment if one member of the familly do not respect rules.
I think that poeple like you should be put on the right track also .. so stupid, so simplist, so racist .. ..

by Laurent | 29/11/2007 | 17:26

Thank you Laurent, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

by Jules | 29/11/2007 | 18:00 | http://;

Dear Jules,
The UK is so wonderful with Northern Ireland pacific region, the terrorism around you with your massive Muslim immigration and their great way in how to be polite being so artificial, I can understand you miss your country as thanks God we still do not have these problems in Switzerland. As being also a foreigner living in this country I never felt being mistreated by such ads or other stuff as I am a straight person, nothing to hide and I respect the country which opened its doors to receive me. We do not have to ask the Swiis people to adpat themselves to our behaviour, culture ,etc rather we have to adapt ourselves to the swiss way of life, we have chose to live here. As for those who are not happy they are freeto pach their luggage and go. This could be also a choice for you with all the respect. Bon voyage!

by Luca | 29/11/2007 | 18:10

Hello There.

with due respect, it is always very paradoxal to read expats living in Switzerland who like to give us lessons.

Did we give you lessons on the behaviour of the royal family on the Diana issue?

Do we give you lessons on some on the behaviour of your troops in northen ireland?

Do we give you lessons on certain flagrant racist discriminations of british society?

Do we give you lessons on the conditions of poverty and homelessness in your suburbs of London or Liverpool?

So please expats. You enjoy our light tax, your enjoy your exxagerated salaries in your multinationals and please behave as our guests in our country. Stay in your place and keep your advice for your brit gatherings with the drunks of the old town pubs.

Switzerland owes its renown and prosperety thanks to the hard work and the stable and consensual political environment. By no way are we indebited to any arrivist expats, whether they carry a Swiss passport or not and who please to tell us how to behave.

God bless switzerland and god save Switzerland from the beefeaters.

by electeur | 29/11/2007 | 19:42

You dn’t think Switzerland owes a lot of its prosperity to the hard working foriegnors. In my firm the vaste majority of engineers are not Swiss.

I think this benefits the Swiss who work elsewhere in the same firm.

I think the taxes I pay also benefit the Swiss. The taxes I pay without having any say over how they are spent despite living in this country for 11 years,

I have enough Swiss friends to realise that the majority of Swiss people are not as ignorant as the last poster but this superiority complex wears thin especially after 11 years.

I wonder where Switzerland would be if the 20% of us decided to stop working and stop paying taxes empty our bank accounts and leave. I know the company I work for would go bankrupt as the couple of Swiss in engineering would find themselves snowed under with work.

by EGE | 29/11/2007 | 19:59

Forget it JulesRitter. You are dealing with people that are and have been living off the spoils of dictators,crooks, and other undesirables since WW2 that have stashed their money here and taxed by Swiss taxes that support the people that give the facade that they are important and doing something. As a foreigner you will always be shown the back of the bus.
Remove the free money and all those foreign subsidized do nothing organizations and you will see a group of people worthy of knowing.

by Willy Williams | 29/11/2007 | 21:09

I think I may have let the cat out of the bag……..

Adam said,

November 30, 2007 @ 7:24 pm

I don’t know about the bag, put you certainly set the cat amongst the pigeons! Nice work, Jules. Another good debate. Get yourself a TV program. Go girl!

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