Italians in Switzerland
Italian- Swiss or Italians in Switzerland are, from the Swiss perspective, Italian citizens residing in Switzerland who are not also Swiss. From an Italian point of view, they are Italians abroad . However, broader definitions extend in private life to people whose families have lived in Switzerland for several generations. In contrast, the Italian-speaking Swiss , who live mainly in the cantons of Ticino and Graubünden, are, according to Switzerland's self- image as a nation of will , not Italians, but Swiss without restrictions. As one of the first immigrant groups, Italians shaped the country in many ways, their integration is considered a model for success.
history
The first Italian immigrants came to Switzerland as religious refugees as a result of the Reformation . However, it was an immigration of elites. Later, Switzerland became important as a haven for Italian liberals . Some families achieved great political and economic influence ( Cérésole , Pestalozzi , Daverio , Jelmoli , Maggi ). It should also be noted that the valleys of what will later become the canton of Ticino have been part of northern Italian feudal rule for centuries . Here, too, there was an immigration of elites, for example the Baggi family in Malvaglia .
Labor immigration from Italy began on a large scale in the late 19th century as part of industrialization and in the course of major construction projects such as the Gotthard Railway or the Simplon Tunnel . Most of the immigrants who reached the country during this period either returned to Italy with the rise of fascism or they were naturalized in Switzerland, this was particularly the case in the canton of Ticino . The future Italian Prime Minister and dictator Benito Mussolini temporarily emigrated to Switzerland as a construction worker in 1902.
Various domestic and foreign policy events related to the presence of Italians in Switzerland and Switzerland's relationship with Italy. For example, there was the Silvestrelli affair triggered by anarchists and the Italian ambassador in Bern in 1902 , or the murder of the Austrian Empress Elisabeth in Geneva by the Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni in 1898 . On July 26, 1896, the so-called Italian riot broke out in Zurich , a xenophobic riot lasting several days. During the Second World War, the Federazione delle Colonie libere italiane in Svizzera set itself the task of conveying to the Italians in Switzerland the democratic values that were suppressed in their homeland. Finally, immigration from Italy also led to a significant increase in the number of Roman Catholic Christians , who were previously a minority . However, they often preferred to organize themselves independently, in the parishes of the so-called Missione cattolica italiana (see also Madonna degli Emigrati ).
In Switzerland the derogatory expression Tschingg was used for Italians . The Swiss German expression is comparable to the Austrian Tschusch . In return for xenophobic attitudes among parts of the Swiss population, Italians have participated in Ticino irredentism , which from the Swiss point of view is subversive , for which in Italy it was mainly intellectuals like Giuseppe Prezzolini (1912) or Gabriele D'Annunzio (1919) who spoke out. Another controversial term was Italianità . The Italians in Switzerland are now increasing the importance of Italian as the national language. Their position as the preferred target of immigration-critical parties fell to the Albanians in Switzerland in the 1990s . The presence of the Italian minority is rarely discussed politically.
For a long time Italians were the largest group of immigrants in Switzerland, but in the 1990s they were outnumbered by people from the former Yugoslavia . They are far less numerous in western Switzerland than the Portuguese . However, Italians remain a large minority in Switzerland, which had around 320,000 members in 2018 (not including Italian-Swiss dual citizens). In 2008 there was a small decrease in Italian immigration. In the course of the emigration of highly qualified people from Italy, the numbers have increased again. In addition, over 70,000 cross-border commuters from Italy came to work in Switzerland every day in 2018 . This has also met with rejection in Ticino and is considered a reason for accepting several popular initiatives critical of immigration in the southern canton.
Guest workers
A new wave of immigration began after 1945, based on relaxed immigration laws. First of all, the Swiss government encouraged the arrival of guest workers by granting them different types of work permits. The family reunion was difficult, some were not allowed to change their work, for example in the " frontalière authority to reside" for frontier workers. When entering Chiasso in the post-war period, "sanitary border controls" were carried out, during which women had to be examined naked. Permanently settled immigrants finally obtained a "C" permit .
In 1970 there were one million immigrants in Switzerland; 54% of them were Italian. In 1963 Albert Stocker founded an “anti-Italian party”, the Swiss non-partisan movement to strengthen popular rights and direct democracy . The so-called Schwarzenbach Initiative , on which the Swiss people voted in 1970, also aimed mainly at the Italians.
Like every other immigrant group of the time, the Italians were confronted with the policy of forced integration or assimilation , later satirized in the very successful 1978 comedy film Die Schweizermacher .
Many descendants of Italian guest workers have also acquired Swiss citizenship and thus belong to the group of so-called secondos . The fact that government agencies and large companies have to offer their services in three languages - and therefore also in Italian - gives them an advantageous position in the labor market. The Italian influence on everyday culture in Switzerland is visible in many areas of life today.
Areas of origin and settlement
The Italo Swiss are not with the residents of Italian Switzerland to confuse what a great autochthonous Italian-speaking form population in Ticino and Graubünden. A total of 527,817 Swiss speakers were Italian. There are also 295,507 immigrants from Italy.
Most of the Italians in Switzerland come from Lombardy (15%), Campania (13.1%), Apulia (12.4%), Sicily (12.1%) and Veneto (8.4%). They speak the dialects of their regions of origin as their first language , as well as German and French as second languages ; they are mostly Roman Catholics , occasionally also Waldensians .
literature
- Ernst Halter (Ed.): The Century of the Italians in Switzerland , Offizin Verlag , Zurich 2003. ISBN 978-3-907496-17-6 .
- Marina Widmer, Giuliano Alghisi, Rolando Ferrarese, Fausto Tisato (eds.): Grazie a voi. Ricordi e stima. Photographs on Italian migration in Switzerland , Limmat Verlag , Zurich 2016. ISBN 978-3-85791-819-3 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Charles F. Delzel (ed.): Mediterranean fascism 1919-1945 . Harper Rowe 1970, p. 3.
- ^ Renzo De Felice : Mussolini il revoluzionario 1883-1920; Capitulo secondo; L'esperienza svizzera . In: Delio Cantimori (ed.): Biblioteca di cultura storica . 4th edition. tape 1 , no. 83 . Giulio Einaudi editore, Torino 1965, p. 23-45 .
- ↑ Verdiana Grossi: Silvestrelli Affair. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland. January 10, 2011, accessed June 22, 2019 .
- ^ A b Stefan Hess : Italian riot. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland. March 9, 2015, accessed June 22, 2019 .
- ↑ Antonia Schmidlin: Colonie libere italiane. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland. November 18, 2015, accessed June 22, 2019 .
- ^ Christian Koller : Missione cattolica italiana. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland. November 14, 2018, accessed June 22, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d Marco Marcacci: La lunga storia dell'immigrazione in Svizzera. In: SWI swissinfo.ch . May 3, 2004, accessed June 22, 2019 (Italian).
- ↑ a b Italiani in Svizzera: saldo migratorio nuovamente positivo ( Memento of the original from January 29, 2020 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 35 kB)
- ↑ Markus Wüest: From Nazis, Jews and Italians. In: Tagesanzeiger. April 6, 2019, accessed April 7, 2019 .
- ↑ SRG SSR Timeline: Founding of an “anti-Italian party” in Zurich ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Anne-Marie Thiesse: La création of national identités - Europe XVIIIe-XXe siècle . In: Points Histoire . 2nd Edition. H296. Éditions du Seuil, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-02-034247-2 , pp. 17th f .
- ^ David Levinson: Ethnic groups worldwide . Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998, p. 88–90 ( here in Google Book Search [accessed June 27, 2009]).
- ↑ The Federal Government in Brief 2011 ( Memento of the original from April 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( PDF ), 8.89 MB , Federal Chancellery (BK)
- ↑ The Italian emigration to Switzerland. (No longer available online.) Zürcher Stadthalle, 2004, archived from the original on May 27, 2011 ; Retrieved June 28, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
