F is for Fremde

immigration limiting referendum 2005

At my hen night, some sweet swiss friends of mine organized traditional swiss folk dancing. The teacher's English was pretty good, but when she wanted to say "partner and corner" in English, but didn't know it. I did my best to translate for her and when she asked "Was heisst Fremd auf Englisch?" I said "um....foreigner....no! stranger." The teacher then got confused and wound up saying "....turn to your foreigner, turn to your stranger...." instead of "partner/starnger." This memory stayed with some of our American guests and they joked all weekend, linking arms and bowing to the left "foreigner" and to the right "stranger."

That's me! Immigrants are Fremden. No stranger than the word "alien" if you ask me. Since Ivo and i began dating 11 years ago, there have been a few votes on immigration. The most recent of which was to not cap immigration. 

Remember how I told you in A how scary the political propaganda can be? 

An Ecopop referendum was proposed in order to limit immigration that the self proclaimed leftist ecologist party anticipate as a result of climate change necessitated migration. They worry that the teeny country with limited resources will be "buried under concrete" by the increased housing that will be needed to house an increasing influx of Fremden. Final results showed 74.1% of voters said no in a referendum. spearheaded by Ecopop, a group describing themselves as leftist ecologists, who claimed the country was being “buried under concrete” owing to the growing influx of foreigners. 
To apply for naturalization, you'll need to have lived in Switzerland for at least twelve years (consistently). You will have to satisfy the following requirements for naturalization: you must be socially and culturally integrated in Switzerland (re: properly observe the rules of the laundry room) comply with the Swiss rule of law, and you must not endanger Switzerland's internal or external security.