Travel and Personal

Those Damn Foreigners – Immigration to Europe

Scribbled on a wall in Geneva:
Etrangers, ne nous laissez pas seuls avec les suisses.

Translation:
Foreigners, don’t leave us alone with the Swiss!

What’s all the fuss about? A recent referendum here that tightened Switzerland’s immigration laws, making them among the harshest in Europe according to the UNHCR. Odd then than a country that prides itself as a beacon of freedom, the home of the Red Cross and the United Nations in Europe, and the repository state of the Geneva Conventions, finds itself being criticized by the UNHCR.

Yet, its not the first time Switzerland is taking a step back. Two years ago, just as I was arriving here, the country had voted down legislation granting citizenship to foreigners. But its not just Switzerland, but Europe in general that is completely clueless on how to manage the migration that comes with globalization.

So, while the US is building its Mexican wall and tightening implementation of immigration law, Europe has long been wanting to throw out the invading hordes. There is a lot of talk of ‘integration’, but head scarfs and veils are still what seem to matter, not things such as income, education levels, and opportunity equality. Small wonder then, that I cannot imagine something akin to this event, embrace the immigrant, pointed to by Genevieve happening here. Switzerland is for the Swiss.

Of course, Switzerland has another reason to welcome foreigners. The anonymous appeal on a random wall was prompted not by ethics, but by what Mr. Quayle noted in a letter to the Financial Times this summer:

Sir, Catherine D. Henry offers a compelling argument extolling the attractiveness of Zurich set against the repulsiveness of London.

Alas, she overlooks one essential fact. Zurich is a quaint, dull, smug, homogenous village. London, by contrast, is the giant, cosmopolitan, entrepreneurial, anarchic, multinational capital of Europe and the Continent’s only global city. However, it is true, as she notes, that the water-skiing is poor.

Or, as Ms. de Luca stated, after moving from London to Lugano, “Everything works here like a dream, really. But you pay for that by being surrounded by pathetically boring people and no culture.”

Ethics or diversity, either way you look at it, foreigners seem to be good for this country.