A referendum on 16 October 1966 redefined the relationship between Switzerland and its diaspora, when voters said yes to a constitutional clause dedicated to the Swiss Abroad. In their recently published book “Heute Abstimmung!”, David Hesse and Philipp Loser pick out the vote as one of the 30 popular decisions that changed Switzerland. Here is the relevant chapter in full.
For centuries, Switzerland was a country of emigrants. Men, women and children left the alpine valleys to seek their fortune abroad. Mercenaries, confectioners, architects, nannies, merchants, dairy farmers, chimney sweeps and others joined the exodus. It was not until the end of the 19th century that immigration began to outstrip emigration. In 1914, the official number of Swiss citizens abroad was put at a sizeable 380,000 – a not inconsiderable figure, as the domestic population back then was less than four million.
The federal government and cantons either had little interest in these emigrants or were happy to have exported some of Switzerland’s home-grown poverty. “They were glad they were gone,” says historian Patrick Kury. Anyone who had left the country lost their entitlement to state protection and welfare. Nevertheless, in 1874 the federal government began checking up on the private agencies that conducted the emigration process, because fraud was rife. And in 1900, a state-run office of emigration was opened for the purpose of advising people against leaving the country “recklessly”.
The constitutional change in 1966 suited both sides of the argument, because it was an affirmation of Switzerland and its values both at home and abroad.
Attitudes to the diaspora changed during the First World War. National emphasis was put on the collective and the importance of strengthening the social fabric. Emigration began to be questioned. It was seen as a drain on the nation. The New Helvetic Society (NHS), founded in 1914 with the aim of “preserving the nation’s genetic heritage”, tried to promote cooperation with expatriate associations and Swiss schools abroad.
The NHS established its own sister organisation in London in 1916 as well as the forerunner of today’s Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA), the Auslandschweizerwerk, in 1920.
Following the birth of the federal Swiss state in 1848, emigrants had repeatedly called on their home country to take greater care of them and give them the right to vote. But it was not until the start of the 1960s that the federal government began addressing their concerns, viewing the diaspora increasingly as an asset to be nurtured for the good of the nation. In its message to the Federal Assembly on 2 July 1965, the Federal Council wrote: “Switzerland is a small landlocked country poor in raw materials with a highly developed, globally connected economy. As such, it relies on a strong and healthy network of hard-working expatriates abroad.” The expatriate community became an economic proposition.
Consequently, the Federal Council wanted its responsibility for Swiss Abroad to be enshrined in the Federal Constitution. A new article in the constitution would empower the government to govern the “rights and obligations” of expatriates, specifically in relation to “the exercise of political rights in the Confederation, the fulfilment of the obligation to perform military or alternative service, welfare support and social security”. Voting in the referendum to decide this constitutional change was mandatory.
The year of the referendum, 1966, became a landmark year for expatriates. Three former federal councillors – Traugott Wahlen, Max Petitpierre and Giuseppe Lepori – lobbied hard for the OSA in 1966, the year in which the OSA also celebrated its 50th anniversary. Swiss Post issued an expatriate-themed stamp, while the Swiss National Library in Berne put on an exhibition devoted to the diaspora. Suddenly, the consensus was that Switzerland should in fact be proud of its emigrants.
Sceptics were very much in the minority. Shortly before the vote, the NZZ called the proposal “completely indisputable”. The vote was about more than just a clause in the constitution, it said. “Switzerland owes a debt of gratitude to its compatriots abroad for their economic, political and cultural endeavours. This is about cementing unity.”
According to the National Council, Swiss Abroad would now become “equal citizens”. There were a number of outside factors at play here. One of them was the end of colonialism. More and more Swiss emigrants in places like Algeria or Congo had turned to the federal government after being stripped of their land and wealth. This motivated Berne to frame Switzerland’s relationship with its emigrants in unequivocal terms.
Secondly, the Cold War of the 1960s marked a return to “geistige Landesverteidigung”, the intellectual defence of the nation, which advocated Switzerland’s “otherness”. Everything Swiss was good, both in Switzerland and abroad.
Thirdly, globalisation: so much was changing around the world, so it made sense to focus on what made Switzerland unique. The economic boom of the 1950s and 1960s brought high levels of immigration, construction activity and population growth. The Swiss economy became more integrated with other economies. Swiss banking was on the up. Berne signed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the precursor of the World Trade Organization (WTO), in 1966. This transformation also stirred up fears: the anti-immigration far-right Nationale Aktion party was founded in 1961.
In the 1960s, Switzerland was opening its economy while pulling up the psychological drawbridge at the same time. Calls for national vigilance during the national exhibition of 1964 were juxtaposed with messages of openness and optimism in the future. The Zurich philologist Karl Schmid described this contradiction notably as a form of malaise in his 1963 book “Unbehagen im Kleinstaat”.
The constitutional change in 1966 suited both sides of the argument, because it was an affirmation of Switzerland and its values both at home and abroad. The new clause was duly accepted by all the cantons and almost 70 per cent of voters. The biggest yes vote was in Geneva, the lowest in Schwyz, Valais and Obwalden. The fact that over 30 per cent voted no nevertheless showed that some Swiss still viewed emigrants as absconders who did not merit any state handouts.
The popular decision redefined the relationship between Switzerland and its diaspora. Emigrants and their families felt valued by their inclusion in the constitution. In its review of 1966, the OSA spoke of the “dawn of a new age”. The new constitutional article prompted the federal government to gradually address some other issues: access to welfare benefits (responsibility for this shifted from cantonal to federal level in 1974); military service in peacetime; and the right to political participation.
Expatriates are entitled to vote and stand for election, based on a federal act that came into force in 1977. This entitlement never expires but is inherited by the passport-holding next of kin. Restricting voting rights to expatriates who have lived outside the country for no more than a few years (as was the case in Canada until recently) was not considered an option.
Expatriate voting was less widespread at first, because emigrants still had to physically cast their vote in Switzerland. The situation only changed in 1992 when postal voting was introduced. Swiss Abroad can now vote at their original or most recent Swiss place of domicile – physically or otherwise. Individual cantons have been piloting e-voting for expats since 2008. In 2015, former ambassador Tim Guldimann, who lives in Berlin, became the first expatriate to be voted into parliament. The state covered his travel costs.
Swiss Abroad are now a political factor in their own right. Well over 800,000 Swiss live abroad. If they were a canton, they would be Switzerland’s fourth most populous. Around 220,000 expatriates are entered on the political register and take part in elections and votes. Many of these people have left the country temporarily and will return to Switzerland at some stage. Budget airlines and the internet have very much changed the face of emigration. “Instead of emigration, it makes more sense to talk of international mobility,” says Rudolf Wyder, who was the director of the OSA for many years.
The 1966 constitutional article put Switzerland’s relationship with its diaspora on a solid foundation. The Swiss Abroad Act then came into force in 2015, setting out this relationship as a piece of legislation. Expatriates are no longer regarded as suspect but as valued members of the Swiss population. The federal government subsidises Swiss schools abroad, runs an online desk for expatriates, manages the SWI swissinfo.ch platform, compiles dedicated Swiss Abroad statistics, and provides other services related to emigration and repatriation.
More has to be done, says Wyder. “We still need government to formulate a coherent Swiss Abroad policy that genuinely recognises the potential of our diaspora.” Other countries like Ireland and Singapore have their own diaspora ministers. This and other innovations have also been theoretically possible in Switzerland since 1966.
Translated excerpt from the book “Heute Abstimmung! 30 Volksabstimmungen, die die Schweiz verändert haben”
Voting papers land in our letter boxes three to four times a year. The procedure is so regular, or even humdrum, that many people don’t bother to vote these days. But direct democracy can have a durable impact, explain David Hesse and Philipp Loser in their book. The two authors – both of them journalists and historians – had the brilliant idea of selecting 30 of the most consequential referendums out of the hundreds of plebiscites that have taken place since the birth of the federal Swiss state in 1848.
Some votes are automatic choices, such as the emphatic yes to OASI (1947), the belated yes to women’s suffrage (1971), and the narrow no to Switzerland joining the European Economic Area (1992). Yet the book also addresses issues that are a little less memorable, including the birth of the Swiss Federal Railways (1898), the integration of the “Fifth Switzerland” (1966, see main text), and the end of patriarchical marriage (1985). Switzerland played a pioneering role in protecting workers’ rights, by approving the Factory Act in 1877. And whereas the “excess of foreigners” initiative failed at the ballot box in 1970, the initiative “against mass immigration” was approved 44 years later.
Many of the referendums covered in the book were a proverbial tale of blood, sweat and tears. Hesse and Loser document the backstories, debates, results and real-life consequences of each vote, providing a refreshing and extremely interesting take on these events. “Switzerland is the product of water, weather, rocks – and popular votes,” they write.
(SWE)
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