Swiss Minarets and Foreigners

By Ocean in Articles, Current Events, Featured, Immigration

Hailing from Switzerland, and being anti-barriers, whether they deal with movement of goods and services or movement of people and cultures, we were disappointed by Switzerland’s recent vote against allowing more minarets in the country. We were even more disappointed at how it became a referendum against muslims and foreigners in general.

It was interesting, therefore, to read this article by Renard Sexton* regarding the breakdown of vote by canton. What we found interesting was how the cantons with most foreigners were less likely to back the ban on minarets, while those with fewer foreigners were more likely to back it. Even more interesting were the data from Ticino, not only because that is the Canton we are from (2 of us, at least), but because it is a definite outlier. With a foreign population of close to 40% it still decidedly backed the ban. The reasons the article gives is that most of the foreigners tend to be Italian, and therefore Catholic. Of course, most foreigners in other cantons tend to be from Germany and/or France, and therefore Protestant and/or Catholic, so that reasoning seems somewhat shaky. The Catholic church has also condemned the ban outright, making it even more shaky a reason.

On the other hand, Ticino has always had a somewhat xenophobic streak; not feeling included in the German/French swiss lifestyle, yet not considering themselves Italian. In fact, the Ticino dialect is being used more and more as a way of differentiating the locals from the Italians who moved in more recently.

At a time when Ticino is trying to market itself as a “New economy” haven for foreign businesses, this is not really a good sign.

*Hattip to Doug Brown for sending us the article.