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Multiculturalism and Multilinguism in Switzerland

Myth and Reality

Does everybody in Switzerland speak all four official languages fluently? Is Switzerland a paradise on earth without any ethnic conflicts? Well, compared to other countries (like Belgium), where internal differences in language and culture have been paralysing politics on a national level for decades, Switzerland with its four native cultures does appear to be astonishingly stable. Never in more than 150 years of modern democracy a Swiss government had to resign and while external dictators like Hitler, Mussolini or recently Qaddafi have proposed that Switzerland should be divided and its regions should be unified with the neighbour countries representing their languages (Germany, France, Italy), this has never been a serious option for Swiss politicians and citizens.

To the contrary, when Hitler and Mussolini demanded for the integration of the German and Italian speaking parts into their empires in the 1930's, Switzerland has reacted by declaring its forth language Rumantsch a national language. Only a tiny minority of 1% of the population speaks this language unique to Switzerland and everybody speaking it is perfectly able to speak German, too. Obviously declaring Rumantsch a national language with a strong majority in a national referendum was nothing else but a clear political signal that the Swiss have a strong national identity despite their differences in languages and culture.

German and French speaking Swiss often have different political preferences

This said, it is nevertheless evident for all native Swiss that there are dozens of political issues where the German speaking majority (74%) has a different opionion compared to the French speaking minority (21%). And why does the Italian speaking minority (4%) often decide like the German speaking majority, though one would suppose that they should be "natural" allies with the Romands [French speaking Swiss], both as a minority and as a Latin (vs Germanic) culture?

A closer look shows, that the antagonism between the German/Italian and the French speaking population is a very relative one. First of all, most referendums in Switzerland (and certainly those where cultural aspects have some relevance) are decided with relatively small majorities of 50.1% to 60%. Every year there are a few referendums where all cantons [federal states] vote unanimously in favor of a new law challeged by a minority party or against a new law or popular initiative. In other words: Claiming that "the French speaking minority has again been dominated by the German speaking majority" is rather pathetic rhetorics than substantial fact.

Another aspect that is often relevant, but rarely outspoken, is an antagonism between the urban population in the cities and the rural population in the backcountry. While the distances in kilometers are small, and many people live in the backcountry but go to work in the city, the difference in opinion is at least as important as the cultural differences between language regions.

From a historical point of view one might even guess that a large amount of the language difference is probably due to the more fundamental difference between the urban and rural view of things. While a majority of the French speaking population is living in cities and larger towns, living in smaller villages is very popular among the German and Italian speaking population.

Multiculturalism

Multicultural music

In Switzerland's pop music charts English dominates - not only due to U.S. and U.K. acts that are known all over the world. Since the Swiss charts were first broadcast in 1968 about half of the lyrics of Swiss productions have been in English, too. Today's Swiss charts are a little bit a reflection of the multicultural society in Switzerland: you will find several languages spoken in Switzerland by minorities represented in the charts, and even #1 rankings for minority language tracks were not unusual from the start in the 1960's. Compare this with the U.S.A., where the Spanish speaking minority had to wait for their first #1 hit until 1987 (La Bamba by Los Lobos). Get an earful of Swiss multiculturalism and multilinguism at www.hitparade.ch.

Is there a Babylonian mix of languages on the schoolyard?

To probe a little deeper into Switzerland's multicultural reality: What is the mother tongue of a child whose mother comes from Peru and the father from Switzerland, of a child whose mother comes from New Zealand and the father from Albania, or of a child whose mother is from the Netherlands and the father from Croatia? And how will they communicate on the schoolyard? These are just a few examples (far from being complete!) from just one primary school in Lucerne where still about half of the children have at least one native Swiss parent (which is a rather high proportion of native Swiss children in any major city, including Lucerne - in another city district more than 80% of the parents are immigrants).

Multiculturalism as a political issue

While some native Swiss folks think that the high immigration rate and the high proportion of immigrants' children in Swiss schools are a danger to Switzerland's cultural tradition and identity, others see multiculturalism as a desirable enrichment. Regardless of these political preferences one has to acknowledge that it is hard work for these children to master two or even three different languages long before courses in foreign languages start officially. Local Swiss authorities in major cities do try to help them: there are special courses in the mother tongue for several nationalities (in cooperation with the corresponding embassies). Studies show that children attending supplementary courses in their mother tongue will not only develop their personal identity more easily but they also master the official Swiss language of the region better.

Multicultural city districts

This modern tower of Babylon used to mark the entrance to Lucerne's most multicultural city district called Untergrund [underground] for about one year. More than 80% of schoolchildren in this city district come from immigrant families.

While the tower itself, built in the center of a traffic roundabout, was colorful and looked nice in the evening sunlight this contrasts quite a bit to the gray reality of the streets.

The location is squeezed between Switzerland's most frequented double track railway line and six-lane pan-European highway Hamburg - Rome on one side and a steep wall of rock reflecting all the the traffic noise perfectly and providing shadow all day long on the other. Gray tenement-houses with narrow flats stand on both sides of the main local highway connecting the old city of Lucerne (57,000 inhabitants) with Littau (a suburb with 15,000 inhabitants incorporated in 2010) and Emmen (an industrial suburb with 30'000 inhabitants).

This is a place most people try to leave as soon as they can - and that's where new immigrants are directed to, because free and relatively cheap flats are easy to find here. Relatively cheap means that it's about half as expensive as a flat a native Swiss worker would rent - but the monthly rental fee will amount to the total monthly net wages of a worker in southern Europe (e.g. Greece or Portugal), or the yearly income of a worker in Africa or Sri Lanka (where many of the inhabitants of this street are coming from).

The "other side of the multicultural coin" is definitely not the "chocolate side" as the Swiss would call the nice side of things. All this is not specific to Lucerne, of course, you can see that in any other Swiss and generally in any European city.

More photos illustrating multiculturality and languages in Switzerland:

A sign in five languages

Multicultural fast food

Tamil shop

Photos courtesy flickr member lido_6006

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