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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JeffA who wrote (17537)	9/24/2004 9:20:21 AM
From: zonder	Respond to of 90947

I know a lot of people with dual (and some with triple) citizenships, one of which is US. Quite a few countries allow multiple citizenships. But I don't know of any Americans who, after living in a country as an ex-pat, took the citizenship of that country - which is what I said to sandintoes after her claim that many American expats have dual citizenships and hence vote in their country of residence as well in the US. Actually, getting Swiss citizenship is much harder than getting US citizenship. You can be a third generation born in Switzerland and still not get Swiss citizenship. Probably why 20% of the country is non-Swiss. I just read about it in today's Financial Times, actually (read below). P.S.: I think I have overstayed my welcome here. So please make any comments on PM. ------------------------------------------- news.ft.com Swiss proposal to ease rules on citizenship puts openness to the test By Haig Simonian Financial Times Published: September 24 2004 03:00 Monica Fasani Serra still smarts from being called a "spaghetti" at school in the southern Swiss town of Sion, her birthplace. A decade later, Ms Serra, a second-generation Italian now studying at Switzerland's Freiburg university - but still not a Swiss citizen - thinks the time has come for the Swiss to confront their contradictions regarding foreigners. At a referendum on Sunday, voters will be asked to approve two proposals easing and harmonising the rules on citizenship. If the measures - rejected in varying forms in 1983 and 1994 - pass, it could be a crucial signal of Switzerland's willingness to adapt. If they fail, it could reinforce foreign views of Switzerland as a closed and self-contented society, eager to attract outside workers but unwilling to acknowledge their contribution. The debate, increasingly heated this week, has a resonance well beyond the Alpine state. Immigration and nationality have become hot issues across western Europe as voters grow concerned about the balance between national values and multiracial societies. Switzerland has recently opened its doors more widely to foreigners on humanitarian grounds, most recently for refugees from former Yugoslavia. At the same time, few European countries are so grudging when it comes to citizenship - and nowhere in Europe are such controversial issues so publicly aired, because of Switzerland's tradition of direct democracy through referendums. About 20 per cent of the country's 7.36m inhabitants are considered foreign, in that they have residency rights but are not Swiss nationals - an unusually high proportion by European standards. While the Swiss have given a welcome to Italian waiters and Spanish cooks, citizenship is much harder to obtain. Foreigners generally require at least 12 years' residency, mostly in a single location, before they can even apply. Similar rules pertain to children, and even grandchildren, born in Switzerland. Under the government's scheme, citizenship would become significantly easier for second-generation foreigners and virtually automatic for the third generation. As a result, the current system, where cantons and even local communities can set impossibly stringent requirements and astronomical fees, would be replaced by a single national standard. "Switzerland is the immigration country in Europe. But it's tail-ender in terms of naturalisation," says Thomas Held, head of the Avenir Suisse think-tank. Mario Tuor, of the federal immigration and integration agency, says: "It's an essential step, especially when people's jobs mean they have to be much more mobile nowadays." Not everybody agrees. Although the government drew up the plan, sections of the ultra-rightwing Swiss People's party (SVP), part of the federal coalition, are viscerally opposed and warn of Muslim domination and "mass naturalisation". Ulrich Fchlüer, a soft-spoken SVP parliamentarian, says the campaign is just doing its civic duty in bringing information to voters' attention that the government has suppressed. Mr Fchlüer, who for years heard citizenship applications as a small-town leader, says current procedures are adequate. "We must respect the Swiss system," he says. "There is a regular procedure, with each community deciding for itself. It's a good practice." His arguments appear to be bearing fruit. What seemed like a clear victory for reform has turned into a very close race. "They just don't want to admit that they don't like foreigners, or recognise that Switzerland needs people from abroad to boost the workforce," says Ms Serra. "They still believe in some mythic Swiss sense of perfection and they'll produce lies to justify it."