> Last November, Holten had her citizenship application turned down for the second time by the residents’ committee.
> In Switzerland local residents often have a say in citizenship applications, which are decided primarily by the cantons and communes where the applicant lives, rather than federal authorities.
How old fashioned and backwards for citizens to be involved in choosing who comes to their community. These people need a strong central government to decide what sort of people they will just have to learn to live with and how many of them there will be.
your satire is duly noted. However, it IS extremely backward that the citizens of a town “vote” to grant an applicant citizenship.
An applicant here must have lived in the town for, I believe, 5 Years (not just Switzerland, the town itself) and pass a civics test. Both fine and proper.
Then the citizens of the town get to vote. There are no objective criteria.
Some towns are moving a bit from this practice, as it is, and has often been, easily abused to simply deny someone based on their name.
What they do there is have a town meeting on the matter where the citizens can raise concerns about an applicant, but the town council then decides based on Objective criteria.
an example
An American, who taught for 20 some years at the University in Zurich, has a wife and children born here, decided he wanted to become a citizen and live out his life here. The citizens DENIED him because they felt he was not integrated well enough. One of the reasons given was that he was not in town that often - because he worked in Zürich! His wife and family were above reproach in town and there was nothing negative about him in any way, but ...
” These people need a strong central government to decide what sort of people they will just have to learn to live with and how many of them there will be.”
And to subsidize them so you can enjoy their ‘vibrancy’ and ‘culture’.