Upper House rejects automatic citizenship for people born in Switzerland
This week a suggestion from Lisa Mazzone, a federal parliamentarian from Geneva who grants automatic citizenship to people born in Switzerland, was rejected in the Council of States by 29 to 13 votes, reported 20 Minuten.
Unrestricted just soli, or birthright citizenship, is becoming increasingly rare outside of the nations of North and South America, where it remains the norm. In the rest of the world there is only Chad, Lesotho, Tanzania, Tuvalu, and Pakistan have it, while another 30 nations have restricted forms of it. For example, the UK grants citizenship to people born there who have at least one permanent parent, and France grants citizenship to people born there who have a parent born there, regardless of the parent’s nationality. If Switzerland were to introduce an unrestricted ius soli, it would be the only nation in Europe with such a system.
Acquiring Swiss citizenship is difficult. It requires a minimum stay of 10 years in Switzerland, the correct permit and a long list of other requirements. Applications for Swiss citizenship must be approved by the federal administration, the cantons and the municipality of residence of the applicant. Cantons and communes have minimum residence requirements so that a move can submit an application. Living on social assistance often stands in the way of naturalization. In addition, the process is expensive and labor intensive. Many who call Switzerland at home never get the chance to become Swiss, sometimes only after several generations.
Karin Keller-Sutter, head of the Swiss Police and Justice Department, spoke out against the proposal and cited birth tourism in the USA and the loss of control over immigration and naturalization as arguments. In addition, it goes against the grain of Swiss federalism, the cantons and municipalities leave the decision-making power who can qualify for citizenship, she said.
Mazzone is also behind another proposal that will make it easier for children born in Switzerland to foreign parents to become Swiss. This would not grant an automatic unrestricted ius soli. Instead, it would simplify the process. This will now be investigated by a federal government commission.
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