Swiss Reject New Naturalization Laws

[global gypsy]

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011131430
Swiss voters rejected on Sunday a proposal that would allow local communities to vote on citizenship applications.
The proposal by the right wing Swiss Peoples' Party would have allowed citizens to decide which immigrants should be granted Swiss citizenship.
According to partial official results projected by a Swiss television, 64 percent of voters rejected the measure nationwide.
The poll results also showed that the measure to raise the threshold for citizenship gained approval only from one of Switzerland's 26 cantons (states).
The controversial initiative, which was meant to overturn a Supreme Court's ruling, would have depended on the local votes only and their decision on naturalization would have been binding with no right to appeal.
Secret ballots were repealed around five years ago by the Supreme Court and in the ruling the court judged the voting to be discriminatory.
The decision by the country's high level court came after reports suggested that some of the local communities were rejecting candidates from the Balkans, Turkey and Africa, but excepted populations from Western Europe, on a regular basis.
Laws in Switzerland on naturalization are already tough as foreign residents in Switzerland have to wait for 12 years before they can apply for citizenship, which is a longer time period than 10 years in Italy, 8 in Germany and 5 in France.
Candidates for citizenship must also pass tests on Swiss language and culture and also show they are integrated into society.
Switzerland has more than 20 percent of foreign-born residents, which is reportedly to be the third highest number among other European nations after Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

Switzerland has more than 20 percent of foreign-born residents, which is reportedly to be the third highest number among other European nations after Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.

From my visits to Switzerland, it is hard see that there are 20% foreign born residents.

But great news that the xenophobic and stupid proposal has been defeated!

[joesoap101]

Switzerland has more than 20 percent of foreign-born residents, which is reportedly to be the third highest number among other European nations after Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.

From my visits to Switzerland, it is hard see that there are 20% foreign born residents.

But great news that the xenophobic and stupid proposal has been defeated!

Thats because you assume foreign born to mean non-white? Italians are the largest group of foreign born residents followed by people from the former Yugoslavia.

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

You are right, there are relatively few non-whites in Switzerland.

I personally tend to notice the relative uniformity of accent in a given region. You do not tend to hear a whole lot of people speaking German or French with a noticeable other-language accent. But I have not spent much time in the Italian section of the country, and might not notice the accent for Italian in any case.