Albanians in Switzerland

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Table of the ten most widely spoken languages ​​in Switzerland in 2000; Albanian is shown in dark orange: around 95,000 speakers
Albanian as the main language in Switzerland according to the 2000 census

The Albanians in Switzerland ( Albanian  Shqiptarët në Zvicër , French Albanais en Suisse , Italian Albanesi in Svizzera ) have been one of the largest immigrant groups in the country since the 1990s and come mainly from Kosovo and North Macedonia . At the same time, Switzerland became an important center of the Albanian diaspora . In contrast, there are very few Albanians from Albania in the country.

history

Until the second half of the 20th century, there were very few contacts between Albania and Switzerland. The oldest historical evidence dates back to 1431, when Albanian bishops were invited to the Council of Basel . In 1556 a new edition of Marin Barleti's book “De obsidione Scodransi” (The Siege of Shkodra ) from 1504 was published in Basel .

The Albanian-Romanian writer Helena Fürstin Koltsova-Massalskaya , née Elena Ghica, who publishes under the pseudonym Dora d'Istria , lived in Switzerland for several years in the mid-19th century. In her book The German Switzerland and the Ascent of the Mönch , she also reported on a mountain tour in the Bernese Oberland in June 1855, on which she allegedly, together with her guides, was the first to climb the Mönch ( 4107  m above sea level ). However, it is assumed that it only reached the Mönchsjoch and that the first ascent took place two years later. But she was the first woman who had ascended to the Jungfraujoch region .

At the time of the Albanian national movement , many of the founding fathers of Albania were in Switzerland. Naim Frashëri recovered from an illness in Baden in Aargau . The famous Albanian brothers Abdyl , Naim and Sami Frashëri wanted to live together in peace similar to that in Switzerland in Albania.

Memorial plaque at the Fraumünster in Zurich , with which the Kosovar-Albanian émigré community expresses its thanks for being accepted into Switzerland during the Kosovo war.

In the 1970s, the Albanians from Kosovo and Macedonia were disproportionately involved in the Yugoslav guest worker migration in Switzerland. When the political situation in Kosovo worsened in the 1990s and the economic situation in the southwestern Balkans worsened, many Albanians who had been working in Switzerland for decades had their families join them . Other Kosovar Albanians were granted asylum in Switzerland . During the Kosovo war , Switzerland temporarily took in thousands of Albanians for humanitarian reasons, for which the Kosovar state thanked Switzerland with a plaque in Zurich.

In the 1990s, Switzerland served as an important center for the Albanian diaspora from Kosovo. Several Albanian-language newspapers were published in Switzerland while the KLA used them as a base for funding and organization.

The collapse of the communist regime in Albania , on the other hand, was of little importance for the Albanian diaspora in Switzerland. In contrast to neighboring countries such as Italy and Germany, Switzerland hardly accepted any Albanian citizens and consistently led back illegal immigrants.

In May 2011, an umbrella organization for all Albanians in Switzerland was founded in Bern. The Albanian umbrella organization wants to function as a lobby for the Albanians from all Albanian areas in the Balkans.

statistics

Number and origin

Celebrating Albanian football fans in Zurich - summer 2016

So far, no statistics have been collected in Switzerland on how many people call themselves Albanians. Based on the 2000 census , the number of Albanian speakers was estimated at 170,000. In 2012 there were 1,302 people from Albania in Switzerland, 79,261 with Kosovar citizenship and 61,668 with Macedonian citizenship, whereby neither all Kosovars nor all Macedonians are Albanians. The total number of people of Albanian descent living in Switzerland, including naturalized and dual citizens, is currently estimated at around 200,000. 3.1% of the permanent population in Switzerland in 2016 stated that they use Albanian as their main language, which corresponds to 258,415. This means that the Albanians, along with the 316,525 Italians, 303,525 Germans and 268,660 Portuguese, are among the largest groups of foreigners in Switzerland.

The Albanians are concentrated in German-speaking Switzerland . Important centers of the Albanian diaspora in Switzerland are Zurich , Basel , Bern , Winterthur and St. Gallen .

The number of Albanians living in Switzerland has not yet been officially recorded because official statistics differentiate foreigners according to their nationality. Albanians were recorded as Albanian, Macedonian, Swiss or Serbian citizens , depending on the situation. People from the Balkans are naturalized more often than the average . These naturalized Swiss disappear completely in the statistics.

religion

The Albanians living in Switzerland are predominantly Muslim . There are also Bektaschites and over 20,000 Christians , mainly Albanian Orthodox and Catholic .

Migration situation

Albanians celebrate the declaration of independence of the Republic of Kosovo in Lausanne on February 17, 2008 .

background

Up until the 1980s there were almost only male guest workers in Switzerland who, due to their Yugoslav nationality, were hardly perceived as Albanians in society. Many stayed in Switzerland for so long that they were later able to benefit from family reunification . The number of Albanians in Switzerland rose by leaps and bounds when the situation in Kosovo became increasingly difficult in the 1990s. Both the host country and the Albanians were ill-prepared for this situation and were finding it difficult to cope with the situation.

Difficult acceptance in the host country

The Albanian diaspora in Switzerland is often affected by xenophobia and racism . As a result of various integration difficulties and criminal acts by some criminal Albanians, many Swiss people have prejudices against Albanian migrants, which lead to fear, hatred and insecurity.

Political parties that publicly oppose excessive immigration and advocate the conservatism of traditional Swiss culture - the Swiss People's Party (SVP) in particular - strengthen this negative attitude among many party supporters. These parties have already launched popular initiatives a number of times , which the Albanians have described as discriminatory. In 1998, the Zurich SVP created an election poster with the words “Kosovo Albanians” and “No” in large letters when it came to financing an integration project for Albanians. In 2009, the federal popular initiative “Against the building of minarets” was accepted by the Swiss people. Many Muslim Albanians were outraged by this result and expressed their opposition. In 2010 the so-called «deportation initiative» followed , which was also accepted by the electorate. According to the law, foreigners who have committed serious crimes should be expelled from the country. The initiative related to crime against foreigners was intended to reduce the crime rate and also make it more difficult for foreigners to be naturalized . The " sheep poster " designed by the SVP attracted international attention and was once again described as discriminatory by many emigrant organizations in Switzerland.

Economic integration continues to pose difficulties for Albanians in Switzerland. In October 2018, for example, the unemployment rate for people from Kosovo was 7.0%, for people from Macedonia at 5.3%, and thus significantly higher than the number for the remaining permanent resident population. A study by the Federal Office for Migration justifies this with the fact that the older generation has poor professional qualifications and the reservations that Albanian young people are exposed to when entering the world of work. In the 1990s, many well-qualified Albanians, because of unrecognized diplomas, with jobs e.g. B. have to make do in construction or in the catering trade, where unemployment is generally higher. This also has an impact on the social welfare rate , which is higher for people of Albanian origin, although there are considerable differences depending on the country of origin. People from Albania are most affected. In contrast, the number of students with Albanian descent is increasing today. While only 67 people were enrolled at Swiss universities in 2008 , there are already 460 in 2017. Albanologists and migration researchers are now assuming increasing integration and assimilation of Albanians, analogous to the development of Italians in Switzerland .

In its annual report in 2010 , Amnesty International found that the “anti-minaret initiative” stigmatized Muslims in Switzerland and that racism in Switzerland in general had increased.

Organizations

Since the 1990s, numerous associations have emerged in Switzerland with the aim of representing the Albanian diaspora community. At first these were just religious and native groups in a few large cities, later organizations and communities were founded which are supposed to represent all Albanians throughout Switzerland.

One of the associations with the largest number of members is the Albanian Community in Switzerland ( Albanian  Bashkësia Shqiptare në Zvicër ). For the Muslims, the Union of Albanian Imams in Switzerland (Alb. Unioni i imamëve shqiptarë në Zvicër ) and the Albanian-Islamic umbrella organization Switzerland (Alb. Bashkësia Islame Shqiptare Zvicër ) appear. One of the largest intellectual groups is the Association of Albanian Intellectuals in Switzerland (Alb. Bashkimi i Intelektualëve Shqiptarë në Zvicër ). Associations for the exchange between Albanians and Swiss are the Institut Suisse d'Etudes Albanaises (ISEAL) and the Society Switzerland-Albania .

In addition, there are now a large number of smaller associations such as football clubs, dance groups, local representatives of political parties, professional and student organizations, educational institutions and religious groups.

media

In Switzerland, several Albanian newspapers were published by the exile community during the 1990s because independent reporting was not possible in Yugoslavia. One of the media published in Switzerland is the online newspaper Fakti Ditor , which is aimed at the Albanian diaspora.

As to promote integration projects more, were supported in part multilingual media from various authorities, the online platform Albinfo.ch or rehired free newspapers Albsuisse and Tung that appeared after 2007, respectively, of 2008. The bilingual magazine and online platform Dialogplus is a little more recent .

Well-known Albanians in Switzerland

Xherdan Shaqiri in the dress of the Swiss national football team

Politics, economy, society

Culture and entertainment

Martial artist

hockey

Soccer

Of the 21 players in the U-17 national football team that became world champions in 2009 , three were of Albanian origin: Frédéric Veseli, Pajtim Kasami and Granit Xhaka. In the qualifying game for the European Football Championship 2012 against England in June 2012, five Swiss with Albanian roots played with Behrami, Xhaka, Shaqiri, Džemaili and Mehmedi. There were heated discussions in the run-up to the games against Albania in the 2014 World Cup qualification , when five Albanians were called up for the Swiss national team.

Several players from the Albanian national football team grew up in Switzerland and some played in the Swiss U21 national team before they played for Albania. In the European Championship qualifier against Denmark in September 2015, eleven players were called up for Albania who grew up in Switzerland or were playing there at the time. Ten of them were in action and five had already played for a Swiss junior national team. The match between Switzerland and Albania at the 2016 European Championship was also emotional .

literature

  • Albert Ramaj : The Albanians in Switzerland . In: "Albsuisse" (Ed.): History - Albanians in Switzerland since 1431 . tape 1 , no. 6 . Zurich June 2009, p. 13–14 ( online [PDF; 815 kB ; accessed on May 22, 2012]).
  • Hans-Peter von Aarburg, Sarah Barbara Gretler: Kosova-Switzerland: The Albanian labor and asylum migration between Kosovo and Switzerland (1964–2000) . Lit Verlag, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-03735-250-2 (Germany: ISBN 978-3-8258-1371-0 ).
  • Ueli Leuenberger , Alain Maillard: Les damnés du troisième cercle - Les Kosovars en Suisse 1965/1999 . Éditions Metropolis, Geneva 1999, ISBN 2-88340-100-4 .
  • Xhevdet Kallaba, Kan Poldervaart (ed.): Kosovo – Switzerland – Kosova - Flight and Return Movement 1998–2001 . Publishing house of the Swiss Foundation of the International Social Service, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-907873-06-8 .
  • Barbara Burri Sharani, Denise Efionayi-Mäder, Stephan Hammer, Marco Pecoraro, Bernhard Soland, Astrit Tsaka, Chantal Wyssmüller: The Kosovar population in Switzerland . Ed .: Federal Office for Migration . Bern August 2010 ( Online [PDF; 2.9 MB ; accessed on May 28, 2017]).
  • Rexhep Rifati: Shqiptarët në Zvicër - 1001 pamje . Ed .: Albanian Institute. St. Gallen 2013, ISBN 978-3-9523077-9-3 .
  • Basil Schader: Shqyrtime gjuhësore rreth kontaktit mes shqipes dhe gjermanishtes në Zvicër . Kristalina-KH, Tirana 2005, ISBN 99943-625-4-2 (with a German summary).

Video documentation

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Albert Ramaj : The Albanians in Switzerland: History - Albanians in Switzerland since 1431. (PDF; 815 kB) Retrieved March 30, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Lidhja e kombeve dhe çështja shqiptare. In: Zëri i Kosovës. April 15, 2011, Retrieved April 6, 2012 (Albanian).
  3. ^ Charles Knapp, Maurice Borel, Victor Attinger, Heinrich Brunner, Société neuchâteloise de geographie (editor): Geographical Lexicon of Switzerland . Volume 3: Krailigen - Plentsch . Verlag Gebrüder Attinger, Neuenburg 1905, p. 384, keyword Mönch   ( scan of the lexicon page ).
  4. ^ SDA: Thanks to the Republic of Kosovo to Switzerland. In: look online. October 29, 2008, accessed May 22, 2012 .
  5. ↑ a b c d Hans-Peter von Aarburg, Sarah Barbara Gretler: Kosova-Switzerland: The Albanian labor and asylum migration between Kosovo and Switzerland (1964-2000) . Lit, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-03735-250-2 .
  6. ↑ a b Permanent and non-permanent resident population by year, canton, population type, gender and nationality. In: Federal Statistical Office. Retrieved March 30, 2018 .
  7. ↑ In 2000, around 6,000 foreigners in Switzerland stated that Macedonian was their mother tongue. This means that around 90% of Macedonian nationals in Switzerland are Albanians. ( . Resident population in 2000 by place of residence type, Canton (-) / District (>>) / Municipality (......), nationality and main language in: Federal Statistical Office. Retrieved on March 30, 2018 . )
  8. ↑ a b A mosque in the name of all Albanians? ( Memento from December 10, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  9. ↑ The ten most common main languages ​​of the permanent resident population. (XLS) Federal Statistical Office, accessed on March 30, 2018 .
  10. ^ Federal Statistical Office: Foreign nationals in Switzerland - 2008 report . Neuchâtel 2008, ISBN 978-3-303-01243-7 .
  11. ↑ Albanermission Nordwestschweiz celebrates double anniversary in Aarau (Commniqué of the Roman Catholic Church in Aargau). In: kath.ch. October 25, 2010, accessed February 19, 2011 .
  12. ↑ Grégoire Nappey: The Albanians will one day be as integrated as the Italians. Political blog of the Tages-Anzeiger , May 27, 2011, accessed on May 22, 2012 (“… Social discrimination through dull clichés like“ everything thieves, smugglers and murderers ”is accompanied by vague fears:“ They take our work away from us. ” ... ").
  13. ↑ Lukas Mäder: SVP with foreigner policy on the advance. 20 Minuten , December 8, 2009, accessed May 22, 2012 .
  14. ↑ Imam Rehan Neziri: Statement on the minaret initiative for E1NS magazine. Albanian-Islamic Community “Hëna e Re” in Kreuzlingen , accessed on September 16, 2014 .
  15. ↑ Central Council wants to overturn the ban on minarets. 20 Minuten , November 29, 2010, accessed on May 22, 2012 (“… The minaret ban is clearly aimed at degrading Muslims in Switzerland.…”).
  16. ^ SVP poster: acquittal. In: Swissinfo. December 7, 2001, accessed August 27, 2015 .
  17. ↑ Bashkim Iseni: Toni Brunner: "The SVP values ​​the large number of Albanians who live in Switzerland". albinfo.ch, September 8, 2011, accessed on September 16, 2014 (interview with the party chairman of the SVP, Toni Brunner ).
  18. ↑ Gian Andrea Marti: The stony ascent of the Albanians . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . Zurich October 27, 2018, p. 16 f .
  19. ^ Amnesty International: More Racism in Switzerland. search.ch, May 27, 2010, archived from the original on September 16, 2014 ; Retrieved on September 16, 2014 : “Muslims were stigmatized by proponents of the minaret ban, according to Amnesty International's 2010 annual report. The laws against racism in Switzerland would only have a limited effect. [...] "
  20. ↑ Bashkësia Shqiptare në Zvicer. Retrieved May 22, 2012 .
  21. ↑ Unioni i imamëve shqiptare në Zvicer. Retrieved May 22, 2012 .
  22. ↑ Albanian imams unite. 20 minutes , February 27, 2012, accessed May 22, 2012 .
  23. ↑ Bashkimi i Intelektualëve shqiptare në Zvicer. Retrieved May 22, 2012 .
  24. ↑ Associations. In: albinfo.ch. Retrieved December 6, 2018 .
  25. ↑ Marc Stegherr, Kerstin Liesem: The media in Eastern Europe: media systems in the transformation process . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-17482-2 , p. 57 f . ( limited preview in Google book search - especially footnote 41).
  26. ↑ website of "Albinfo.ch". Retrieved May 22, 2012 (Albanian, unknown language, German).
  27. ↑ Albsuisse: about us. Archived from the original on January 7, 2012 ; Retrieved May 22, 2012 .
  28. ↑ Simon Hehli: Muslims: Bekim Alimi . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . January 3, 2017 ( nzz.ch [accessed June 15, 2017]).
  29. ↑ The Imam. In: Muslim Association Bern. Retrieved June 15, 2017 .
  30. ↑ Miss Universe Albania 2019 from Miss Universe 2019: Preliminary Evening Gown Competition ( en-US )
  31. ↑ Spartakos Fikaj: Angela Martini Esquire Turkey Feb 2011 . January 29, 2011.
  32. ↑ Benjamin Steffen: Two hearts in the chest. In: NZZ online / NZZ am Sonntag. September 9, 2012, accessed September 10, 2012 .
  33. ↑ Eva Tedesco: "We may be provoked". In: 20 minutes online. September 10, 2012, accessed September 10, 2012 .
  34. ↑ Flurin Clalüna: The ugly story of "treason" . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . No. 210 , September 10, 2012, p. 29 ( article on NZZonline ).
  35. ↑ Denmark-Albania. In: UEFA.com. September 4, 2015, accessed September 4, 2015 .