Swiss unveil first part of programme to better integrate foreigners through language skills
Becoming Swiss citizens: you'll need to show you speak the local language
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland’s commitment with a law that went into effect in 2008 to ensure that foreigners are better integrated into daily life in the country are taking form. The first view of the new “fide” programme was provided by Federal Councilor Simonetta Sommaruga Tuesday 15 May at the programme’s initial conference in Bern.
It is aimed at foreigners whose stay in Switzerland is “legal and long-term” says the Immigration Office, without spelling out precisely what this means, for example, if it will apply to all B and/or C permit holders. The federal and cantonal governments are budgeting funds for the new programme starting in 2014.
Longer term, the programme aims to provide immigrants with practical, daily life language skills as well as helping them obtain certification for work in a number of areas.
The practical implications for foreigners, whether long-stay permit holders or those seeking Swiss citizenship, may not yet be clear, but the programme itself is taking form. Traditionally
Fide is designed to provide a standard framework to help immigrants develop language skills in German, French and Italian. It will also offer standardized tests at different levels and for foreigners with a variety of educational backgrounds. Traditionally, the tasks of ensuring integration and testing applicants for citizenship have been left up to communes, with enormous variety in how these were handled.
Language specialists with special skills in teaching to foreigners, from throughout Switzerland’s language regions, have worked to develop the programme in line with similar efforts in the European Union. The work was coordinated by the Institute of Plurilingualism in Fribourg and pilot programmes were run by three cantons in 2011, Solothurn, Aargau and Vaud.
The courses and exams are still being designed, but will be available to language schools and teachers starting in the summer of 2012, at www.fide-info.ch.
22 percent of them born elsewhere
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Only a minority of Swiss think there are too many foreigners living in the country, Country-wide, 45.7 percent of those asked say that there are too many foreigners living in Switzerland, while 53.7 percent say the number of non-Swiss is not too high.
A slim majority of Swiss Germans (50.9 percent) believe there are too many foreigners, while the French-speaking cantons (67.3 percent) and Italian-speakers in Ticino (61.3 percent) are more open towards foreigners, according to the poll by Isopublic, published by Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger Saturday 7 November.
Fewer people moving across Swiss borders to live
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Foreigners living in Switzerland accounted for nearly 1.7 people at the end of August 2009. Of these, 1,053,000 were from the European Union-27 and the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) states, an increase of 4.6 percent over August 2008, according to numbers released by the Federal Office for Migration in Bern. This rate of increase slowed from 7.9 percent registered in the 12-month period between September 2007 and August 2008, mainly due to the recession since late 2008.
