From the editor.

AuteurMeen, Liz
Fonction Editorial

The pre-election rhetoric of the Swiss People's Party (SVP), seems to invite fear about the non-Swiss residents who also call this country their home.

In fact, an expatriate might feel rather like a gatecrasher in the face of SVP proposals to expel delinquent young foreigners together with all of their law-abiding family members.

To most expatriates, a little Swiss reticence about an influx of newcomers makes sense, especially for a country as desirable as this one. People from other lands who are living here can sense the pressure building as Switzerland opens up to EU citizens. By and large, they also understand the fear that might result from the disproportionate number of foreigners in Swiss jails. We foreigners comprise one in five residents, but two-thirds of the prison population, including asylum seekers.

Still, Switzerland has the toughest naturalisation laws in Europe. And as the United Nations brands a controversial election poster 'racist', many Swiss and non-Swiss recoil at the attention, and hope it will subside after the election.

And it may. After all, the SVP may be...

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