Local Citiizenship Decisions in Switzerland

If towns like Hazleton, PA, Framers Branch, Texas, and Valley Park, MO in the United States had their way, they might well do what some Swiss municipalities are doing.  There N.Y. Times reports that Milikije Arifi has lived in Switzerland for more than 30 years, is fluent in German — the principal language here in the north of the country, passed an examination on Swiss and local history and government, but, in April, for the third time, the Town Council in a Zurich suburb denied her and her husband citizenship. The council made its decision in private and gave no justification for the denials beyond “insufficient integration.” 

Today, Swiss citizens are voting in a referendum on whether to give municipalities the final say on granting citizenship, and allow townspeople to vote in secret on whether foreign members of their community can receive Swiss passports. Such votes were declared unconstitutional in 2003, but the practice continues in some pockets of the countryside. The ballot measure would also make it unnecessary for elected officials or townspeople to justify their decisions, and would deny rejected applicants any recourse.

KJ