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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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 Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 11:25 pm Post subject: Swiss reputation for tolerance under threat |
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URICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's reputation as a haven of tolerance for immigrants has been undermined in recent weeks by calls for a ban on new minarets, a mysterious synagogue blaze and neo-Nazi threats to disrupt national day celebrations.
Switzerland is known for public order and efficiency. Its neutral status and high living standards, as well as its need for lower cost workers, have historically attracted refugees from conflicts around Europe and the world.
But with rising immigration -- and lack of integration caused partly by tight laws on handing out Swiss passports -- religious and ethnic tension has been on the rise, particularly focusing on Muslims.
"There is always this feeling that Switzerland is a little island and you daren't let anything in because it will destabilize it," said Clive Church, an expert on Swiss politics, recently retired from the University of Kent.
By the end of 2005, more than a fifth of Switzerland's 7.5 million residents were foreigners, a higher proportion than in any other European country except Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, according to the Federal Statistics Office.
Most of those are from Europe, with large communities from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia, many of those Muslims who fled the conflicts there.
"Radical Islam is a huge foreign political factor," said Swiss culture and politics expert Jonathan Steinberg of the University of Pennsylvania. "None of the immigration before constituted an international threat. Now they do." |
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2513935820070525?feedType=RSS&rpc=22
Europe is awaking.. Decades of islamic immigration is changing everything. |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 11:56 pm Post subject: |
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Switzerland had a tolerance for immigrants? Didn't know that.
I thought they rejected most Jewish people at the borders from coming in even during the Holocaust? |
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samd
Joined: 03 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 3:44 am Post subject: |
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I'm half Swiss, and this is hardly new.
When I was there in the early 90s the Swiss were divided on immigration. Half of the country was up in arms about yugoslav immigrants ruining everything. Again after Somalian immigration there was renewed outrage, with reports of black gangs in Zurich. Now it's switched to muslims. I'm not surprised.
Switzerland is far from tolerant socially. They just have humane immigration laws. That is, they don't close their borders to people in need, unlike most of our countries.
The Swiss are about as nationalistic as you can get. When she visited me here, my mother said it was amazing how similar Korea is to Switerland.
I look Swiss, but I'm not Swiss. I cannot now, and will not ever, be accepted as Swiss, no matter how long I stay there. |
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samd
Joined: 03 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 3:46 am Post subject: |
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I also remember seeing swastikas carved into park benches.
Once I asked my mother what the Swiss-German graffiti on a wall meant, and she told me it said "foreigners out."
So much for tolerance. |
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