Word: asylums
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...black man casts a mischievous eye from campaign ads in newspapers across the country. IF MORE AND MORE SWISS FEEL LIKE NEGROES, the man says with a smile, THEN PARLIAMENT NEEDS TO GET ITSELF A REAL ONE. The grinning face belongs to Andrew Katumba, who's the son of asylum seekers from Uganda, a naturalized Swiss citizen and a candidate for parliament. He's running under the banner of Secondos Plus, a left-of-center group made up of foreign-born Swiss who promote simplified naturalization and integration of foreigners into Swiss society. "Like it or not, Switzerland...
...dramatic increase in the country's foreign-born population is fueling the popularity of the SVP, the furthest to the right of the major parties. Some 20% of Switzerland's population is foreign-born, one of the highest percentages in Europe, and last year more than 26,000 asylum seekers and refugees came to the country - costing the government j590 million. As it has in the past, the SVP is making immigration (legal and otherwise) a hot-button issue. But this time around the party is breaking out of its traditional elderly, agrarian base to attract younger and more liberal...
...Started in 1971 and led by Christoph Blocher, 63, the head of Swiss chemicals company EMS-Chemie Holding AG, the SVP has always been staunchly opposed to opening Switzerland's borders to asylum seekers and immigrants. Pre-election opinion polls indicate that this issue preoccupies a large number of Swiss, many of whom also believe that closer European integration will open up the country to more foreigners. The SVP is making the most of the electoral opportunity. "More and more people believe that we can make a positive difference in their lives," says Aliki Panayides, the SVP's deputy secretary...
...grassroots participation is a double-edged sword," says Thomas Held, director of Avenir Suisse, an independent social and economic think tank. "The danger is that the party will overdramatize the issues and frighten the voters into rejecting reforms or adopting restrictive measures, as is the case with the asylum issue...
...priorities would be to launch a referendum on expelling all refugees and asylum seekers, without the possibility of appeal. Refugees determined to be at risk if returned to their own country would be sent to a safer destination. Another SVP referendum would seek to give local authorities the right to decide whether foreigners living in their areas receive Swiss citizenship, meaning that residents of a given town or village could vote on a candidate's suitability to become Swiss...