I surely have a very romantic conception of Switzerland, which I have not and never will see.
Nobody is going to *become Swiss*, and before globalism, there was no reason to be troubled by that thought: it would be a dull world if we were all the same.
I myself have only ever known one Swiss person. If you don’t count Heidi.
The question is: will it be a nicer country with 18 million people instead of 9 million?
Well, I have a number of friends and acquaintances who are naturalized Swiss citizens, so I have to disagree with you about that. They aren’t Swiss in the blood and soil sense, but they have committed to Swiss values, culture, and language.
I do agree that 18 million would be pretty crowded, but it seems unlikely that the population would double, given that to obtain a permit to live in the country, immigrants have to have a job, not take social help, pass a background check, and agree to learn the local language.
Sounds more like holding the line than anything else. The Swiss will have to be truly unusual to keep up those defenses, or that coercion. But then “Swiss” like Japanese for instance is sort of one of those bywords for “distinctive”. So the Swiss may be a protected class.
I like the point of this column, Mari, but admit to being distracted by memories of your incredible enthusiasm for Swiss cheese when Arthur and I visited you and Matt last summer. Your deep appreciation of special cheeses was so very Mari, and is a wonderful memory which I would not have recalled were it not for this column. Maybe to get along better we should all just break bread together...with cheese!
Much of what I understand to be "stereotypical Swiss" is also "stereotypical German." Have you spent much time in French speaking Switzerland, and is it more like German Switzerland, or more like France?
I have spent some time in the French-speaking part, especially Neuchâtel (in fact we’re hiking there on Saturday), and my sense is that the French-speaking part of CH is still quite Swiss, although maybe not so much as the German-speaking part. Btw, before we moved to CH, a German friend said, “Ach, the Swiss! They are more German than the Germans!”
I am guessing the referendum proponents are not concerned about "us and our friends as threats." That is, nice polite people who blend in. But I am curious if perhaps the concern is about Muslim immigrants and other Third World populations who may prefer not to assimilate but instead form separatist communities with very different culture and traditions. This might be something like saying the Swiss drivers do not speed in their cars . . . while actually meaning, nice people like those I know do not speed.
I think there is some worry about this, but in fact Switzerland doesn’t have the kind of problem with unassimilated immigrants that other countries—e.g. France and Germany—have. There are no banlieues here, for example. The SVP just really doesn’t like immigrants of any kind, including from neighboring European countries and the US.
But the SVP is not 47 percent of the Swiss (I think it’s about 33 percent), so you may be right that the referendum is getting support from outside the party because of worries from more moderate voters about potential problems with unassimilated immigrants in the future. And it could be that yet again I am generalizing from my experience!
I surely have a very romantic conception of Switzerland, which I have not and never will see.
Nobody is going to *become Swiss*, and before globalism, there was no reason to be troubled by that thought: it would be a dull world if we were all the same.
I myself have only ever known one Swiss person. If you don’t count Heidi.
The question is: will it be a nicer country with 18 million people instead of 9 million?
Well, I have a number of friends and acquaintances who are naturalized Swiss citizens, so I have to disagree with you about that. They aren’t Swiss in the blood and soil sense, but they have committed to Swiss values, culture, and language.
I do agree that 18 million would be pretty crowded, but it seems unlikely that the population would double, given that to obtain a permit to live in the country, immigrants have to have a job, not take social help, pass a background check, and agree to learn the local language.
Sounds more like holding the line than anything else. The Swiss will have to be truly unusual to keep up those defenses, or that coercion. But then “Swiss” like Japanese for instance is sort of one of those bywords for “distinctive”. So the Swiss may be a protected class.
I like the point of this column, Mari, but admit to being distracted by memories of your incredible enthusiasm for Swiss cheese when Arthur and I visited you and Matt last summer. Your deep appreciation of special cheeses was so very Mari, and is a wonderful memory which I would not have recalled were it not for this column. Maybe to get along better we should all just break bread together...with cheese!
Awww! Thank you for sharing this memory! And I agree: More cheese for everyone!
Much of what I understand to be "stereotypical Swiss" is also "stereotypical German." Have you spent much time in French speaking Switzerland, and is it more like German Switzerland, or more like France?
I have spent some time in the French-speaking part, especially Neuchâtel (in fact we’re hiking there on Saturday), and my sense is that the French-speaking part of CH is still quite Swiss, although maybe not so much as the German-speaking part. Btw, before we moved to CH, a German friend said, “Ach, the Swiss! They are more German than the Germans!”
I am guessing the referendum proponents are not concerned about "us and our friends as threats." That is, nice polite people who blend in. But I am curious if perhaps the concern is about Muslim immigrants and other Third World populations who may prefer not to assimilate but instead form separatist communities with very different culture and traditions. This might be something like saying the Swiss drivers do not speed in their cars . . . while actually meaning, nice people like those I know do not speed.
I think there is some worry about this, but in fact Switzerland doesn’t have the kind of problem with unassimilated immigrants that other countries—e.g. France and Germany—have. There are no banlieues here, for example. The SVP just really doesn’t like immigrants of any kind, including from neighboring European countries and the US.
But the SVP is not 47 percent of the Swiss (I think it’s about 33 percent), so you may be right that the referendum is getting support from outside the party because of worries from more moderate voters about potential problems with unassimilated immigrants in the future. And it could be that yet again I am generalizing from my experience!