Secondo

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A secondo or a seconda is a collective term that was originally used in Switzerland for children of migrants who were born in Switzerland, have lived in Switzerland for many years or have even been naturalized . These are mainly the children of immigrants from the 1960s and 1970s. The term is now used in other countries for the second generation of immigrants. Basically, it has positive results and is used by those affected themselves. It comes from Italian and means exactly "second" or "second".

Since 1960, Italians were the largest group of foreigners who had immigrated to Switzerland for work and income purposes. In 1960 around 550,000 Italians lived in Switzerland, in 2013 there were still 275,000 people with exclusively Italian citizenship. Through their Italianità, they have helped to shape and enrich the Swiss way of life and have become an integral part of the economy and society.

In Germany, there has been a special course offer for secondos at the University of Regensburg since 2009 to enable them to systematically build on the language and culture of their countries of origin in adulthood.

Critics reject this designation. According to media reports, it became a "bad word" after Secondos were held responsible for the riots at the Zurich May Day celebrations in 2002. Critics say that this term excludes these people and forces them to follow their parents' migration history. Alternative terms used include “children of immigrants”, “second generation” or “young people of foreign origin”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reto Vogt: Amore, pasta e vino. In: Migros magazine . August 3, 2015, p. 8
  2. ^ Secondos program. Studying at the University of Regensburg and in the parents' country of origin. In: Website of the University of Regensburg
  3. ↑ a b c Urs Maurer: Secondos in Switzerland. In: swissinfo.ch. June 9, 2003, accessed May 10, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b Silvana Schreier: Politician wants to ban the term “secondo”. In: 20min.ch. December 14, 2017, accessed May 10, 2018 .