Access to Citizenship ACIT - Swiss Contribution

• Unité de recherche: SEM
• Numéro de projet: 12-03
• Titre du projet anglais: Access to Citizenship ACIT - Swiss Contribution

Mots-clé (Allemand)

Bürgerrecht
gesetzliche Grundlagen
Europa
Integration

Description succincte (Anglais)

ACIT will develop four sets of citizenship indicators on citizenship laws, their implementation, rates of citizenship acquisition and its impact on integration in all 27 EU Member States and accession candidates and EEA countries. ACIT will collect and compare available national and international evidence on how acquiring citizenship enhances immigrants' participation in society and the democratic process. It will analyse indicators to reveal the hidden links between citizenship and integration policies within EU competence, including anti-discrimination, family reunion and long-term residence.

Objectifs du projet (Anglais)

ACIT will develop four sets of citizenship indicators on citizenship laws, their implementation, rates of citizenship acquisition and its impact on integration in all 27 EU Member States and accession candidates and EEA countries. ACIT will collect and compare available national and international evidence on how acquiring citizenship enhances immigrants' participation in society and the democratic process. It will analyse indicators to reveal the hidden links between citizenship and integration policies within EU competence, including anti-discrimination, family reunion and long-term residence.

Résumé des résultats (Abstract) (Allemand)

Two divergent trends characterise the current development of citizenship in Switzerland. On the one hand, we can witness a paradigmatic change in law, leading to a liberalisation of the current citizenship regime. A younger generation of experts and lawyers occupy influential positions in the federal administration and promote guarantees to equal chances in access to and the granting of citizenship–irrespective of the candidate’s ethnic origin, gender, or religion. The citizens of Switzerland support this approach in the sense that they have become more sensitive to arbitrary and unequal decisions on access to and the granting of citizenship. The voters repeatedly favoured the professionalised handling of naturalisation procedures at all levels (federal, cantonal and municipal). On the other hand, we witness exponents of a strong federalist tradition. They prefer to leave the decision-making on questions of citizenship with the cantons and their municipalities and/or the local population. They defend particular interests, support the sovereignty of the people and oppose a common rule of law based on universal principles of equal rights. For them, citizenship is ‘deserved’, and the acquisition of citizenship should be the result of a long integration process. In the perception of the conservatives, citizenship is an instrument of social exclusion rather than one of inclusion into society.