Is Switzerland having a problem with Arabic & Romanian immigrants?

Show all answers

sophia

There is an ongoing debate in Switzerland about immigrants. The accession of poorer Eastern European countries to the EU has stoked the debate largely because although Switzerland is not in the EU, it has an agreement with the EU on 'the free movement of persons between the EU and Switzerland'. In short any citizen of an EU member can get a work permit in Switzerland (there probably some exclusions but this isn't a 'legal' answer so to speak just high-level). The agreement isn't a big problem when it is fairly developed countries which are EU members because there isn't a large number of immigrants from these countries but when less rich countries become members it is natural that some of their citizens will want to try their luck elsewhere and sometimes they try Switzerland. It is commonly argued here that that crime has risen because of the increase of immigrants from poorer countries (although I haven't seen any data to back it up).

Recently in the parliamentary elections the political party Swiss People's Party (SVP) also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre (UDC) is a right-wing party and has been growing in popularity. This year for the first time according to the stats available they won 29% of the votes.

There has been some controversy around their several of their proposals that they hyped during elections. One was a proposed ban on minarets saying it violated the secular state idealogy of Switzerland. They also launced a marketing campaign to gain support for the deportation of "criminal foreigners" using an illustration in which three white sheep roaming on a Swiss-flag delimited area kick out a black sheep. The caption reads: "Bringing safety". The outdoor ads were banned in Geneva where there are many international organizations including the UN, the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

So is there a problem? I think the way the Swiss people have voted indicates that they are at the very least concerned about immigrants and their effect on Switzerland.

mxix_1546

No, Switzerland does not have any problems. We are a democratic open minded society, with functional laws against racism.

What a question to ask.

north b

I have no idea. Are they?

Esther

switzerland has problems with immigrants and Swiss people.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: