The Arbitrary Nature of Naturalisation Interviews (Swiss Press Local 2024, by Fabian Duss and Matthias Niederberger) - Swiss Press Award
Freier Schweizer
Fabian Duss and Matthias Niederberger
The municipalities have a lot of leeway when it comes to qualification procedures for naturalisation. The hurdles to attaining a Swiss passport vary greatly depending on where you live. Based on two cases, the authors tried to get hold of the questionnaires for naturalisation interviews in the canton of Schwyz. It was only after the cantonal public information officer had intervened that 20 of the 30 municipal authorities released the document. A detailed account of this arduous investigation can be found in a separate article (“A marathon with chicanery”). An appraisal of the materials provided revealed that some of the questions are hardly a suitable way of assessing whether or not a person is well integrated – for example the question about the most common colour of cows in Muotathal. Other questions are suggestive in nature, for example in Rothenthurm: “Do you think there should be yet more immigration to Switzerland?” In Morschach, Muslim women are asked whether they wear a headscarf. “There is good reason to describe the scope of the questions that prevail in the canton of Schwyz as arbitrary,” the journalists comment. Their perseverance results in amendments being made to some of the questionnaires.
Interview with Fabian Duss and Matthias Niederberger
