by Thomas Stephens, swissinfo.ch
Life for aspiring Swiss in Zurich could get harder on March 11, when voters decide on whether to accept a new – and tightened – naturalisation law.
A Swiss passport is already one of the toughest to obtain in industrialised countries, but if the rightwing Swiss People’s Party has its way, it will become even tougher.
“People with a criminal background shouldn’t be able to be naturalised – you should only gain Swiss citizenship if you have a spotless record,” Hans Heinrich Raths, a People’s Party member of the Zurich cantonal parliament, told swissinfo.ch.
“We also want no guaranteed right to naturalisation.” In other words, he isn’t happy that citizenship will be automatically granted if an applicant fulfils all the criteria.
This got short shrift from the canton’s director of justice Martin Graf. If someone passes their driving test, he said, “you can’t withhold their licence just because the examiner doesn’t like the person’s nose”.
The original aim of a motion put forward by the centre-left Social Democratic Party was to harmonise naturalisation rules across the canton – which everyone agreed was a good idea. However, during the consultation process the centre-right parties significantly tightened the law in several areas (see box for how the new law would differ).
This went too far for the cantonal parliament, which, along with the parties on the left, rejects the new law and a counterproposal by the People’s Party which goes even further. Both will be put to Zurich voters on March 11.
Categories: Europe, Human Rights, Immigration, Switzerland