[...] Interesting Immigration System , Nigerians or Vietnamese. It seems rather funny that as immigration becomes a larger issue…Some call the Swiss immigration system racist. Is it racist or is it smart? BBC described it as: Switzerland has Europe s toughest naturalisation laws. Foreigners must live for 12 years… individual Swiss citizens can be racist, one cannot logically carry that over to the immigration… the final say on who is Swiss and in a time of mass immigration to Europe and the resulting [...]

Though, is there a means to appeal this process? I’ve never been to Switzerland but I can envision a number of likely scenarios in which a perfectly assimilated individual would be denied citizenship for no valid reason.

I think this is nonsense. I heard a report on a young Turkish woman living in Switzerland – born and raised, second generation immigrant, university degree, speaking perfect French, German (and English), and yet she had to apply for citizenship at her village of birth that she had not been to for 20-odd years. They rejected her. She applied 2, 3 times more, and they still rejected her. What right had these villagers to say whether or not this woman should have citizenship? To my mind, it is none of their business. Now she’s had to resort to putting up posters around the village asking people to “accept” her. Absurd.

Switzerland wants the benefits of immigration but it does not want to accept any of the costs.

There is also evidence of racism: people with dark skins are far less likely to be accepted for citizenship (by a secret ballot of strangers) than white-skinned people. And have you never heard of institutional racism?

The attitude that tells people that citizenship is possible but then lets people (secretly) disallow those they don’t like the LOOK of is mean and ugly.

Of course, you will never need to imagine yourself in that position, will you? And please don’t embarrass yourself by pretending that your sojourn in Germany is any equivalent.

Chirol: I have residence and work permits for China. They have to be renewed every year and are entirely dependent on my acquisition of legal, paid work. I have lived in China for nearly eight years and I’m married to a Chinese citizen. Sure, each country has its own right to set its own immigration policy, but some systems are too open to (potentially racist) abuse (Switzerland, for example) or are plagued with (arguably xenophobic) unnecessary restrictions on otherwise well-adapted, committed individuals (China, for example). I still can’t figure out why it’s so (relatively) easy for a rich foreign manager of a foreign company in China with a foreign spouse and foreign children and no kind of long-term commitment to China to get permanent residence while a humble teacher like me who has family commitments (through marriage, granted, but still real commitments) in this country and who has gone out of his way to adapt to the local customs, culture and language, and who is making a real contribution to China’s future (through education) is still living in year-by-year insecurity. I’m glad for you that you’ve got such a good thing going in Deutschland, especially since it seems so secure, but it seems to be too easy for you from your viewpoint to praise the Swiss system. There are many immigrants out there who found themselves caught out in the cold because of these more restrictive immigration systems. I won’t complain about my own situation, because I walked into it knowing and accepting what the deal would be, but Jimm’s example of the young Turkish woman is a perfect example of the precarity many people find themselves in thanks to overly restrictive immigration laws.

And yes, I love how Switzerland makes such a point of devolving as much power as possible to the local level, but somethings really should be taken care of at the state level.

But Europe’s problem is not really immigration. Europe’s problem is the persistence of racism.

Chris: I agree that racism is a big part of the problem in Europe but you have to remember that Europe’s problem isn’t all that unusual. In fact, we in the US, Canada and Australia forget far too often that our open immigrant-friendly societies are the exception and not the rule.

In addition, you must not confuse being able to live and work in a country and receiving citizenship. Someone who has permanent residence is not missing out on much. And again, there is NO right to citizenship.

However, on a side note, within the EU, foreign but fellow EU citizens are allowed to vote in local elections if they’ve lived somewhere for more than 6 months. So a Frenchman or Estonian could live here in Stuttgart and vote in certain local elections for example.

Also, with regard to Germany, as I said before, my example was aimed at showing that citizenship is overrated, permanent residence or a continuing residence/work permit is almost as good. I too had to go back yearly and renew mine showing my bank account, insurance and other documents.

And lastly, in response to Jimm, you make a point that individuals may be ill suited to the task of deciding on someone’s citizenship however, who would better know the person than the locals he or she lives among? In addition, you could take a counter example of the UK’s open door policy which has allowed far too many foreigners to flood the country and remain unassimilated. If I were a UK citizen, I would be outraged at having no say at all.

Switzerland is the safest county of the world.Their laws are very modern and very good against racism.Because if they did not have those laws there would be no stranger come to live and work here in this country where the more than 50 percent of population votes for the racist-neonazi political parties as SVP and SD.This is miserable.Is not it?