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The University of Bern is swarming. Francesca Falk (46) gets up, walks past her office at the Historical Society, and pours boiling water into the kettle. Moroccan mint. “Migration and spatial issues have long been linked,” says the professor of migration history.
Immigration has risen from fifth to third on the list of the most pressing issues facing Switzerland, according to a survey conducted by the TX Group in February. In Seegräben ZH and Windisch AG, living space has recently become a problem again, as individual tenants have to leave their flats to make room for people fleeing.
Lack of space, fear of foreign infiltration, “the boat is full”: The arguments today in the immigration debate are by no means new, Falk says: “These were already used in the 2014 Ecopop initiative.” The initiative, which was rejected, called for massive restrictions on immigration.
The initiators also justified the Schwarzenbach initiative, one of the most controversial votes in 20th-century Swiss history, by saying, among other things, that the Italians were taking away the living space of the Swiss population. In 1970 the initiative demanded that the proportion of foreigners in Switzerland not exceed ten percent. Had it been accepted, 350 thousand workers would have had to leave the country.
The charming Gotthard and the exploited miners
In Switzerland, large-scale labor migration began underground. When the construction of the century opened in 1882, the whole world looked at Switzerland: the Gotthard tunnel. 15 kilometers long, one kilometer above solid granite – a dazzling Swiss prestige object and at that time the longest railway tunnel in the world.
“More than ten thousand Italian miners worked hard in Gotthard under financially exploited and disastrous conditions,” Falk says. Their apartments also gave a lot to talk about: they lived in the barracks, the hygienic conditions were deplorable. “The misery in the neighborhoods prepared for the workers actually transcends all concepts,” said a doctor in 1876. Switzerland was criticized for poor conditions across Europe.
But the pressure for time and savings was too great, and Gotthard did not improve working conditions in Switzerland’s ten years of construction. The Italians had to take on the most dangerous jobs. Hundreds were killed or seriously injured.
Even when the Italians drilled at Simplon, Jungfraujoch or Grenchenberg until 1916, death stubbornly accompanied the tunnel fire. The Italian labor settlement was built in Tripoli, Grenchen SO – sometimes more than 1000 workers lived in 67 small barracks.
A decision about life and death
The Swiss immigration policy of the 19th century was generous. All eleven seats at the University of Zurich were occupied by foreign professors in 1833. A descendant of a German and an Italian immigrant, he founded the now world-famous companies Nestlé and Maggi; the latter has been owned by Nestlé since 1947.
“The migration wave peaked before the First World War,” says Falk. Forty percent of those living in border towns such as Basel came from abroad. With the outbreak of war, the immigration police stepped in and the borders were closed.
But towards the end of the Second World War, with the Allied landing in Normandy, the admissions became a little more generous. “During the Second World War, no Jewish refugees were allowed to enter Switzerland for a long time because of anti-Semitism,” says Falk. This is despite the fact that other groups who had to flee for political reasons were allowed in. Racist leads to resolute politics. “As in WWII, this can make the difference between life and death,” Falk says.
Outlawed, praised, integrated
After the end of the Second World War, the Swiss economy exploded, the need for workers was overwhelming, and the borders were reopened. But as proud as we are today of panettone, pizzerias, or Italian coffee culture: the Swiss were initially afraid of Italian newcomers.
“People said their families were very patriarchal, very fertile, and very culturally diverse,” Falk says. “Pretty much all that has been said about Muslims today.”
In order to protect themselves from the so-called “Italianization”, more and more people from then Yugoslavia were conscripted. “Culturally, you looked closer to some, you were more blond and blue-eyed. One got the feeling that they weren’t going to crush Switzerland that much,” Falk says.
The example of Sri Lanka also shows how quickly the image of an immigrant group can change. Civil war broke out there in 1983 and Tamils here faced many prejudices: they were lazy or violent. The atmosphere was heated, with deadly attacks on shelters.
Then change – and lazy people from Sri Lanka became hardworking Tamils in the hospitality industry. Reason for image change: “A new group had slipped down that could have added to the bad image,” Falk says.
Yugoslavia was torn apart by a bloody war that brought a record number of asylum applications to Switzerland. Since Switzerland had previously recruited people from the Balkans, even more came after the war broke out – because they already had relatives or acquaintances here. “So they became the new scapegoats,” Falk says.
“We are addicted to immigration”
Falk says it’s too simplistic to blame migration for scarce habitat. “There are many reasons for the housing shortage: Real estate, for example, is very popular as investment property.” The need for space per capita is also increasing. That’s why spatial planning needs to be rethought, Falk says.
Usually only unwanted immigrants are mentioned. However, we should not forget that we are dependent on immigration.” Without them, industries that are typically considered Swiss, such as agriculture, would no longer exist – because many Swiss would no longer do this business under these precarious conditions. The same is true for the maintenance sector. “Immigration is what makes Switzerland Switzerland,” Falk says.
Source : Blick
I am Dawid Malan, a news reporter for 24 Instant News. I specialize in celebrity and entertainment news, writing stories that capture the attention of readers from all walks of life. My work has been featured in some of the world’s leading publications and I am passionate about delivering quality content to my readers.
