As Swissinfo.ch notes, Bern is currently holding consultations with the EU at the expert level. So we have a little time to take a look at the history of immigration to a country where a good foreigner is, above all, a useful foreigner.
Immigrants have made a significant contribution to the creation of modern prosperous and well-ordered Switzerland. Starting from the end of the 19th century, their share in the total population structure steadily grew, and by 1914, that is, by the beginning of the First World War, they already made up 15% of the total number of people living in Switzerland. The lion's share of migrants were citizens of France, Germany and Italy. Among them there were, of course, bankers and large industrialists, but most labor migrants were ordinary workers on railway construction sites or at factory machines. Then the war began and the foreign diaspora split into those who supported Germany and those who sympathized with France.
Then, after the end of the war and the 'golden 1920s', the global economic crisis began, which was accompanied by fear of what in the German-speaking part of the country was called 'Überfremdung' or 'foreign infiltration'. Many people believed that foreigners living in Switzerland posed a real threat to national unity. It was in this atmosphere that the Federal Council (the government of the Confederation) adopted the first 'Law on Foreigners' ('Bundesgesetz über die Ausländerinnen und Ausländer' / 'Loi fédérale sur les étrangers') in 1931.
'This law enshrines the idea that Switzerland is not a classic immigrant country like the USA, and that any foreigners have only the right to temporarily stay on the territory of the Confederation. This idea, in fact, became the basis for the emergence of the so-called 'seasonal worker status', intended to legally formalize the presence of foreign labor in Switzerland,' notes Etienne Piguet, professor of social geography at the University of Neuchâtel and author of a 2013 monograph with a somewhat paradoxical title that can be translated as 'Labor Immigration to Switzerland: 60 Years with Wide Open Doors' ('L’immigration en Suisse, 60 ans d’entreouverture').
In the period after the Second World War, Switzerland experienced a period of economic takeoff, caused by demand for products from the only undestroyed economy in Europe from states striving to heal their war wounds as quickly as possible. The so-called 'German economic miracle' played a special role. In this situation, the need of Swiss industry for labor increased many times over.
The authorities began to massively invite foreign labor into the country, regulating its inflow with special quotas based on applications from Swiss industrial enterprises. This was a very convenient tool, allowing the country to attract exactly as many foreign personnel as the economy needed. Growth slowed down – quotas were reduced, growth accelerated – and quotas increased.
Such quotas were first established by a government decision in 1963. 'At that time, the principle of 'national preference' in hiring was considered completely normal,' recalls Etienne Piguet. 'It was believed that Switzerland provides the opportunity to work, and those who get it should be grateful and content, considering that after working a set period, these lucky ones could return with their accumulated money to their homeland and start a new life there.'
The word 'gastarbeiter', which has long entered the Russian language, was used in Switzerland to refer primarily to Italian migrants, and it very well revealed the essence of the existing system. The concept of 'guest worker' clearly indicated that foreigners come to the country to work and nothing more. The Italian authorities in Rome saw the situation differently.
In 1964, yielding to constant pressure from Italy, Switzerland recognized the possibility for Italian guest workers, after 5 years with a seasonal residence permit, to exchange it for an annual one. And it gave Italian workers the right to family reunification, which had previously been denied to them.
Interestingly, in the same year in Zurich, the first popular legislative initiative 'Against Foreign Infiltration' was put forward to a referendum, which was, however, withdrawn before it was put to a vote. A second initiative followed in 1970, authored by a deputy from the National Action party, James Schwarzenbach. It proposed obliging cantons not to allow the share of foreigners in the population to exceed 10%. However, the people rejected this bill by a majority of 54% of the votes. Two more similar initiatives by J. Schwarzenbach followed (in 1974 and 1977), but they also were defeated in referendums.
At the same time, on the initiative of the federal government, which realized the problem of the presence of foreigners in the country, the 'Federal Commission for Foreigners' ('Die Eidg. Ausländerkommission') was created, now called the 'Federal Commission for Migration Issues' ('Eidg. Kommission für Migrationsfragen').
'At that moment in Switzerland, they began to realize that these people were already part of our society, that they were not going anywhere, and moreover, that a second generation of migrants (secondos) had been born, which would definitely stay to live in Switzerland. And this realization became the real turning point in the national policy of integration of foreigners,' notes Sandro Cattacin, a sociologist at the University of Geneva specializing in migration issues.
The methods and instruments of direct democracy were generally used very actively in Switzerland to address migration issues. In the 1980s, the initiative was taken up by left-wing forces, who put forward the popular legislative initiative 'Mitenand-Initiative für eine neue Ausländerpolitik' ('Solidarity Initiative for a New Policy on Foreigners'). However, in 1981, it was rejected by a majority of nearly 84% of voters, who decided not to abandon the legal status of 'seasonal worker' and to maintain the quota system, which allowed for very precise regulation of the intensity of immigration flows.
This system ceased to exist only in 2002 as a result of the entry into force of the agreement between Switzerland and the EU on freedom of movement. Now, citizens of Switzerland, as well as citizens of EU countries, could travel to each other without any restrictions, seek work, work and live. In 1985, 1993, and 1995, the Swiss rejected three more legislative initiatives aimed at limiting immigration in referendums. And then came February 2014.
"One could say that during that period the situation developed symmetrically. No truly restrictive initiative against migrants was adopted by the people, but voters were also in no hurry to vote in their favor. On the one hand, the country needed the labor of guest workers, primarily for economic reasons, but at the same time Switzerland was in no hurry to open its arms wide to them. That is why I called my book '60 Years with Wide Closed Doors,' summarizes Etienne Piguet.
According to Sandro Cattacin, urban Switzerland today copes quite well with migration. Urban culture has been able to find formats for integrating masses of newcomers more quickly. But the rural part of the country has not yet developed such a format and still prefers to react defensively and even sometimes aggressively. At the same time, Sandro Cattacin notes, the motivation of such people has changed significantly over time.
"The main pathos of the opponents of the 'foreigner infestation' of the 1960s-1970s concerned not culture or mentality, as today, but the country's appearance. J. Schwarzenbach was to some extent a romantic, a defender of nature. In that era, Switzerland experienced an explosive growth of cities; it seemed that a little more and the country would disappear under a layer of concrete, and the influx of foreigners only stimulated these processes. Such fears, as is known, turned out to be unfounded, although, of course, when modernization begins to pick up too rapid a pace, people with conservative thinking often literally lose their bearings."
How then can the results of the referendum on February 9, 2014, be interpreted? "This is a very interesting case, given that various xenophobic initiatives in Switzerland have a chance of success only when they do not directly affect the wallet and personal well-being of citizens," reflects Sandro Cattacin. "There have always been about 20% of voters who positively perceive xenophobic rhetoric. We observed this in the case of the ban on building new minarets, the same is noticeable now with the planned ban on wearing the niqab."
"As for the referendum on February 9, 2014, the decision to limit labor immigration from the EU has the most direct economic consequences for Switzerland, and the success of this initiative means that the people who make up that 20% somehow changed their way of thinking, putting not economic aspects but some others at the forefront," continues the sociologist. "But most likely all this happened, probably, because of a basic confusion in people's minds who did not fully understand what, or rather, against what they were voting. For example, the branch of the Swiss Green Party from the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino supported the initiative to limit labor immigration, driven by its environmental anti-European sentiment."
Etienne Piguet, for his part, is not ready to offer any patented recipes that would help resolve the contradiction between the return of migration quotas from the 1970s and the principle of free movement of persons in relations between the EU and Switzerland. But at the same time, he believes that such quotas, even if they are actually introduced, should become 'the last means of counteracting negative processes in the migration sphere; they should be an option designed never to be used, at least on the European front.' Instead, he predicts a tightening of quotas for people from other parts of the world, especially refugees.
"Ultimately, Switzerland will try to preserve as much freedom as possible in its relations with the EU. And that means only one thing: both in the 1960s and now, the main motive determining the nature of Swiss policy towards migrants has been and remains the motive of economic expediency and pragmatism. If the country's economy wants to get the necessary labor, it will always get it, despite any quotas," summarizes Etienne Piguet.
According to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, over the past 60 years, the total number of immigrants entering the country was about 6 million people. As of the end of 2014, 8.2 million people lived in Switzerland, of which about 2 million were foreigners.
The largest diaspora in Switzerland is the Italian (15.3% of the total number of foreign citizens), followed by Germans (14.9%), Portuguese (13.1%), and French (5.8%).
More than half of EU citizens entering Switzerland have a higher education. A considerable part of such labor force is employed in capital construction projects, the tourism industry, and the healthcare sector.
If we exclude the oil-producing monarchies of the Persian Gulf, city-states like Singapore and Luxembourg, as well as countries currently forced to host a huge number of refugees (Jordan, Lebanon), then Switzerland, according to OSCE data for the period from 2005 to 2009, will be in first place among immigrant countries. Per 1000 local residents, there are 16.5 new arrivals per year. Thus, Switzerland surpasses Ireland (16.3), Spain (16), Austria (11.1), Australia (9), Canada (7.6), Great Britain (7.3), Italy (4), the USA (3.8) and France (2.1).
Marc-André Miserez.
Translation by Lyudmila Klot.