What have sing Fideris (GR), kandergrund (BE) and Winter (BL) have in common? All of them have naturalized in 25 years, not a single foreigner. The data of the Federal migration Commission and the University of Geneva, for the first time detailed information to the local Naturalisation procedure in Switzerland.

The three towns are not the only with this balance sheet: 125 municipalities have not awarded since 1992, a red Pass. Considering only the recent past, specifically the period from 2011 to 2017, so there are 261 municipalities.

cities citizens more often

At the other end of the scale are to be found in the big cities. They are, in absolute Numbers, the most frequent Switzerland makers. Top rider of Zurich started to take place between 2011 and 2017, almost 17’000 people, behind Geneva (9760 naturalisations), Lausanne (6019), Basel (4975) and Winterthur (3368) follow.

Also if you look at the naturalisation rate, i.e. the number of naturalisations per 100 foreigners in the cities are foreigners, far ahead of the game. Statistically show that, with increasing the Size of the municipality, the proportion of naturalized persons increases, says Philippe Wanner, Professor at the Institute for demography and socio-Economics at the University of Geneva.

A possible explanation for this is that people in small communities capable of standing frequently in front of a naturalization, "because you are afraid to fail and, therefore, stigmatized to be". In larger municipalities this fear was due to the anonymity to be less severe.

What to Luzern from Bern differs

Of the ten largest cities, has awarded Lucerne in the period from 2011 to 2017 in Relation to the foreign population – the majority of nationalities. A hundred foreigners were naturalized per year, on average 2.3 persons. In Zurich and Winterthur, the rate is around two percent. Significantly lower, the proportion in Bern and Biel / Bienne is about one percent.

In Lucerne can be explained by the relatively high Rate among other things, that have expanded in the past few years, the human resources to incoming requests faster. Possibly the number pendenter applications in other cities is higher, suspected Katrin Aeberhard, head of the Department of population services of the city of Lucerne.

But also played political reasons. "The issue of acquisition of citizenship is when the parties in Lucerne on the Agenda," says Aeberhard. Political initiatives resulted, for example, that the city must notify those persons who fulfil the criteria for naturalisation are regularly active.

a year Ago, the city Council has referred also to a Motion of SP, Green, and GLP, under which naturalisation for under 25-Year-old in the future, free to be – the new regulation is expected to come in 2021 in force. "It is possible that this will generate additional new items," says Aeberhard.

A JSVP-Initiative and its consequences

At the conclusion of the light of Bern, it refers to the naturalization provisions of the Canton, which had been clarified in the last ten years of "continuous". So the voting public has turned to 2013, a naturalization initiative of the young SVP, which the light of a naturalisation of social assistance recipients or people without a C-card impossible. Similar rules country came five years later, far more (see Box).

in addition to the different levels of hurdles in the cities and cantons of the Size and composition of the foreign population, according to the expert Wanner on the naturalisation rates. "It plays a role, from which countries people are coming from, what socio-economic strata they belong to, and whether you live alone or with their families."

it appears that Switzerland are widely naturalized in absolute Numbers, although most Italians, Germans and Portuguese. Measured in terms of the Size of the Community, the Iraqi, Sri Lankan and Congolese have the highest proportion of naturalized persons.

Canton of Vaud is the leader

The highest naturalization rates in the whole country, has Villars-le-Comte is in the Canton of Vaud. It has naturalized between 2011 and 2017, more than ten percent of its foreigners. A total of seven Vaud municipalities are represented in the Top Ten.

According to Philipp Wanner is likely to contribute to the liberal naturalization practice for young people of the second Generation in the Romandie to this result. In addition, it is often the small municipalities with a low proportion of foreigners, in which a few naturalisations catapult the ratio in the heights. In German-speaking Switzerland, Basel (BE), Biezwil (SO) and the village (ZH) fall into this category.

How many applications have been filed in the municipalities of each, and how many were rejected, it is not apparent from the data. This Information is not collected in Switzerland, unfortunately, systematically, regrets Philippe Wanner. The rejection rate could include information about whether or not certain citizens are systematically discriminated against.

turning in Fideris

In the naturalisation free Kandergrund in the ten-year term of office of municipal President Roman Lanz never a request, such as this explained on request. Indeed had stayed because of the Neat construction site is at times around 400 foreigners in kandergrund, in tourism, a number of foreign workers employed. "These people do not want to stay here – it tends to take more after one or several seasons."

In the grison Fideris, where foreigners have even the right to vote, to live in the meantime, two freshly baked Swiss. After 2017, a married couple had been naturalized, says parish President Marianne Flury. And stresses: "Unanimously!"

Created: 01.03.2020, 17:02 PM