Swiss citizenship

[fineleg]

Switzerland’s citizenship process has long been an oddity. Legal scholars say it must be viewed in the context of the Swiss system of direct democracy. Decisions on individual applicants are made at the local level. The votes are most often by elected officials, but in the countryside, a more traditional practice prevails: When people want to become citizens, their neighbors gather in a town meeting and vote. Although applicants are given tests to check their language skills and knowledge of Swiss government, allowing people’s neighbors to vote is seen by some lawyers as making the system less professional and more open to subjective judgments. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/world/europe/01swiss.html?_r=1&oref=slogin Milikije Arifi has lived in Switzerland for more than 30 years, since she was 18, and raised a family here. She is fluent in German — the principal language here in the north of the country — and speaks it with the same Swiss accent as her neighbors. She passed an examination on Swiss and local history and government. Still, in April, for the third time, the Town Council in this Zurich suburb denied her and her husband citizenship. Although the law encourages a vote held in public and a detailed explanation, the council made its decision in private and gave no justification for the denials beyond “insufficient integration.” “We did not break the law,” said Martin Koller, a member of the council and its immigration committee. “A local community can never be forced to naturalize anybody.” Mrs. Arifi, a 52-year-old native of Macedonia, said, “I was shamed and exposed in front of everybody.” With her Serbian-born husband, Ajrula, she sat through the hearings on their petitions until they were asked to leave the room for the secret vote. “We have always worked and paid our taxes,” she said. Mrs. Arifi said she planned to challenge the ruling in court. “I am Swiss, whether they give me the passport or not,” she said. “They cannot take that away from me. But I demand my pride back.”