identity, social capital, and mutual accommodation: experiences from the swiss immigrant society...

Identity, social capital, and mutual accommodation:

Experiences from the Swiss Immigrant Society

Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka

Bielefeld University

Immigrant Switzerland Metropolis 2003

2

National identity and diversity

• Is there a Swiss definition of national identity, and if so, how is it defined?

• Are the immigrants included into the Swiss WE-group self-definition?

• If not, how is the cultural distance constructed?

• Is social trust impeded by the lack of the immigrants‘ inclusion into the Swiss national WE-group definition?


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Three models of national unity

*

Ethnic definitionsof national identityand unity

Commonalities through• Culture, language, religion• Common heros, significant events• (Multi)culturalist modes of inclusion

Republican versions

• „Nation by will“• „Constitutional patriotism“ • Citizenry bound together by equal rights and obligations

• Dense ties of civil associations

Postnational,Translocal,Flexible

• Temporary territorial boundedness, paired with supralocal networks and allegiances* Multicentered


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Switzerland between the ethnic and the republican / civic model

Two remarks on this distinction• There are problems of distinction between both

models– In particular historical periods, the civic model can

acquire culturalist connotations

• In both models the achievement of social integration, cohesion, equity and justice is possible, the one model not being more inclusive than the other: „both are differently inclusive - and exclusive“ (Brubaker 1999)


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Is a culturalist notion of WE-group identity possible in Switzerland?

• There is no common language• There is no common religion• There is a strong self-perception of manifold

internal division lines and differences (language, religion, local custom, town-countryside-divide, class interests, civic / political allegiance, regional / cantonal belonging)


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The multi-lingual Switzerland

• German (Swiss) – 73 % (national, official)• French – 19% (national, official)• Italian – 8% (national, official)• Romansh – less than 1 % (national)

Experiences• Administrative / territorial (cantons, communes) units

coincide with linguistic boundaries (defining the language used in schools and in administration) but

• No political division lines have been drawn along linguistic boundaries in Swiss history

• Cultural and religious boundaries do not coincide with linguistic boundaries


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The multi-religious Switzerland• Catholic population (old cantons and the Italian part) – 44%• Protestant population (e.g. ‚Zwinglian‘ Zurich; Calvinist Geneva) –

55%• „Jews and others“ – 1% (in pre-immigration period)

Experiences• Strong religious divisions, conflicts, Kulturkampf (late 19th Century)

throughout history• Significant connection between religious divisions and party politics• Until the late 19th century: the Protestant‘s political dominance over

the Catholics was pronounced• 1874: Maintaining religious freedom becoming the state‘s duty (in

charge of marriages, funerals, public schools)• Currently: increasing religious diversity through immigration


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‚Thin‘ culturalist WE-group definition in Switzerland

• ‚Multi-cultural Switzerland‘: no common marker

• ‚Alpine‘, as one option, but not really a common denominator

• Common past (battles, other historical events), however with ambiguous undertones (Swiss role in the 2nd World War)


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• Is there a Swiss definition of national identity?

• How is it defined?


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Three models of national unity

*

Culturalist definitionsof national identityand unity

Commonalities According to• „Culture“• Language• Religion• National heros• Significant events

Republican versions

•„Nation by will“• „Constitutional patriotism“

• Citizenry bound together by equal rights and obligations

• Dense ties of civic associations

Postnational,Translocal,Flexible

• Temporary territorial boundedness, paired with supralocal networks and allegiances* Muliticentered


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The Swiss republican version

• Accommodating the Swiss diversity in all three social spheres:– Government, state institutions: tacit quota systems

according to language and canton (no legal basis)– Public sphere: dense civil society networks, cutting

across linguistic barriers (deliberations, „ownerhip“)– Religions‘ confinement to the private sphere: state‘s

role in affecting „religious peace“

• Common political culture: mutuality and commonness through a high value-stress on equal civil rights and duties


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Diversion: What makes a good Swiss?

• Neutral• Laborious• Solid• Curagious• Realistic• Honest• Reliable• Modest• Non-conspicuous

(From the film ‚The Swiss-Makers‘ - 1978)


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The Swiss republican version

Important avenue for managing difference

• bound not by identity construction, but rather by a – broad range of inclusionary practices – – with a strong stress on civil society formations

Does this notion extend to the immigrants?


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National closure and exclusion vis-a-vis the immigrants

50 years of Swiss immigrant society, consisting of

• Guest workers

• Highly skilled experts

• Asylum seekers

• ‚Second‘ and ‚third‘ generations of former guest worker families

> ca. 20 % of Swiss population


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Swiss WE-group identity, exclusion and inclusion

• Are the immigrants included into the Swiss WE-group self-definition?

The answer is ‚no‘• If not, how is the cultural distance constructed?

– Discourses of ‚Überfremdung‘ (1960s-1980s)– Strong public reactions to non-Christian religions– Distanciation vis-a-vis non-Western European value

systems and codes of conductResult: a stronger culturalist WE-group identity

distinguishing the ‚own‘ and ‚foreign population‘ through opposition to ‚alien‘ religious and cultural characteristics

However: Readiness to compromise about such vital issues as religious freedom (with persisting rigidities)


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Readiness to compromise over such vital issues as religious freedom through civic negotiations

• Immigrant religions (currently ca. 4% of total population – Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, new Christian religions) and their exponents have repeatedly confronted the state authorities and the public with religious demands and objectives (school dispensations, special regulations,own structures such as places of prayer and cemeteries, public recognition of congregations)

• The immigrants‘ religious objectives and their exponents have become part of the Swiss public sphere


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Is social trust impeded by the lack of the immigrants‘ inclusion into the Swiss national WE-group definition?

• Answer 1: No, it is not, thanks to the republican option to negotiate and to accomodate (e.g.) religious difference– Emerging dense social ties binding various societal

‚stakeholders‘ such as governmental commissions and authorities, politicians, individual supporters, social movements, inter-religious organisations dealing with cultural-religious issues

– Public space(s) to communicate cultural and religious needs and objectives exist(s)

– Scope for mutual accommodation, interreligious and intercultural dialogue


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Is social trust impeded by the lack of the immigrants‘ inclusion into the Swiss national WE-group definition?

• Answer 2: Yes it is.– Little sense of ‚co-ownership‘ of civic networks among

the immigrants, their public representations being confined to the cultural-religious domain

– Few ‚social capital‘ ties bridging into other societal domains (publicity, national, cantonal level):

• Hardly any immigrant politicians• Lack of participation in the governmental bodies• Little representation in civil society organisations outside the

religious domain– The immigrants‘ overt involvement in identity politics:

claiming rights, making oneself visible, whereas– The Swiss republican ideal seeks to confine culturalist

expressions to the private sphere


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The Swiss dilemma: the republican ideal seeks to confineconfine culturalist expressions to the private sphere

• The Swiss pragmatism brings a wide range of civic options to negotiate, to compromise as well as options for mutual accommodations about

• At the same time, the republican model implies a cultural-religious (putative) neutrality of state and civil society institutions

• Whereas: Immigrants don‘t leave their cultural-religious luggage at state‘s borders – strong stress on the realisation of religious and cultural rights


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„Neutral“ institutional settings such as public holidays or burials

• Vs. Claims to outer religious freedom and cultural rights

• Pursuing cultural and religious objectives as the immigrants‘ projects within the Swiss public sphere, resulting in

• Growing importance of identity politics – which tend to create strong public reactions


21

Immigrant Switzerland: recent experiences

• Immigration reinforces culturalist orientations

• High degree of politisation as well as mediatisation of culturalist positions with boundary-drawing tendencies in the mass media were recent phenomena

• No visible bridging social ties between immigrants and the Swiss „insiders“ exist


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Immigrant Switzerland: recent experiences

Whereas on the other hand exist• Manifold mutual accommodations in

various societal domains (schools, religious circles, neighbourhoods)

• Manifold efforts by governmental organisations at various levels to strengthen accommodation efforts

• Multiple civil society negotiations and accommodations – small size, de-centered


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Immigrant Switzerland: two insights

1. Processes of accommodation happen at various levels of societal organisation and occur in a variety of contexts. State-centered perspectives and those concentrating on the national level reveal crucial insights about the nature of legislation, jurisdiction, governmental practices and the problems how to establish „informed public discourse“ (Kymlicka). However, mutual accommodations are a feature of flexible and multi-centric civil society relations (partly vis-a-vis the local state). In manifold situations, bridging social ties and mutual exchanges on religion and culture appear to be a more and more frequent feature in Switzerland, but they do not (yet?) translate into national-level dynamics. When observing this multiplicity of ‚exchange-situations‘, one may ask whether at present, it is possible to conceive of political-cultural belonging merely in holistic national terms. To what extent do experiences and perceptions of common belonging differ within state borders?


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Immigrant Switzerland: two inferences

2. The Swiss history and the unique Swiss political culture provide a particular institutional „script“ for accommodating the immigrants‘ cultures and religions. Whether the Swiss WE-group self-peceptions will acquire stronger culturalist overtones and whether the WE-group self-definition will oscillate towards a ‚Swiss multi-cultural immigrant society‘-model remains to be seen. In the Swiss context, however, full incorporation requires citizenship and the participation in dense bridging social ties at all levels of societal organisation.

identity, social capital, and mutual accommodation: experiences from the swiss immigrant society...

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