Swiss Vote on Citizenship

In a national referendum last Sunday Swiss voters defeated a measure that would have approved the current practice of allowing secret votes by townspeople on granting citizenship to foreigners living in their communities.

Some wishful thinkers on the Swiss political left claimed that the vote was a blow to the powerful conservative Swiss People’s Party, (SVP), which initiated the measure. Nearly 64% of voters cast "no" ballots, and the measure gained a majority in only one of the country’s 26 cantons.

In recent years Switzerland has seen a gradual shift to the right in the political party landscape. The conservative Swiss People's Party (SVP), previously the junior partner in four-party coalition governments, more than doubled its voting share from 11% in 1987 to 22.5% in 1999 and to 26.6% in 2003. In last elections in 2007 the SVP took 28.8% of the vote for the House of Representatives, up 2.1% from 2003, the greatest vote increase among the four governing parties since 1919, winning 62 of the 200 seats in the House.

In the 2007 election the SVP took a strongly anti-immigration stand. The SVP has risen rapidly in politics, asking for the will of the people in referendums is common in Switzerland’s direct democracy, and the SVP regularly leads initiatives on questions over foreigners asylum and against entry to the European Union.

Enough Is Enough

The Swiss have shown a growing resistance to immigration and granting citizenship. The measure defeated in Sunday's vote would have overturned a 2003 Swiss Federal Court ruling that held that secret citizenship votes by townspeople on foreign residents were unconstitutional. Despite that ruling, the practice has continued in some parts of the country. Some cantons required a public referendum on whether to admit specific lists of applicants and many foreign individuals have been rejected in these votes.

Switzerland has done its part in accepting foreigners, especially refugees. Its population has grown from 1.7 million in 1815 to 7.5 million in 2008. The population has risen by an impressive 750,000 since 1990, including many immigrants. Switzerland has one of Europe’s highest percentages of foreigners living within its borders exceeded only by Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. Of the 7.4 million residents, about 1.4 million, or 20%, are from other countries, especially workers from Spain, Portugal, Italy, and various parts of the former Yugoslavia.

Tough Requirements

For a foreign national, Switzerland is not the easiest place in the world to obtain either permanent residence or full citizenship, but neither one is an impossible goal.

Obtaining the right to become a resident in Switzerland has never been easy, and has become increasingly difficult. Once accepted for residence, however, Swiss citizenship may be available eventually. Switzerland has some of the toughest naturalization rules in Europe. To apply, you must live in the country legally for at least 12 years, pay taxes, and have no criminal record. Until the Sunday vote the application could still be turned down by a vote of a local commune.

Welcome for Selected Foreigners

For financially independent foreign individuals, business investors, and entrepreneurs, it may be possible to obtain a special deal for residence in Switzerland.

That deal currently covers 3,600 foreigners who pay an average CHF75,000 (Swiss francs) (US$60,050) each in tax, earning Switzerland CHF300 million Swiss francs (US$240.2 million) per year. The system allows foreign citizens living there to negotiate a fixed tax rate based on their Swiss property factors, excluding income earned outside Switzerland. Deals vary widely among the 26 cantons, but the basic formula is to calculate a minimum of five times the annual rent or the rental value of the expatriate's home and his living expenses. That amount is taxed at an average rate of 30% and that can mean a huge savings on taxes.

As someone who often has visited and written about Switzerland, my guess is that the Sunday vote says more about the Swiss being a hospitable people -- which they certainly are -- rather than indicating a sea change in a nationally conservative attitude towards immigration.

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