Your article (Sports, shopping and how to be Swiss, 19 July) reported on calls to change citizenship tests in Switzerland after Funda Yilmaz, a lifelong resident of the country, was rejected by the municipality of Buchs. I would not like your readers to think that the events described are typical of the whole of Switzerland.
In our canton, Vaud, the decision is entirely in the hands of the municipality. As in the case of Buchs, we are required primarily to assess the degree of assimilation of the candidates in our local society, including our view of the candidate’s command of French. However, our interview is not open to the public and we are not required to establish minutes of our discussions such as those drawn up by the commune of Buchs and published by the Schweizer Illustrierte, which seem primarily intended to confirm the prejudices of the interviewers.
Moreover, since I became mayor, we no longer ask irrelevant questions about the names of rivers, mountains, local dialect, shopping or leisure habits, but attempt to determine whether the candidate has made an effort to be up to date on national and local political questions, recent referendums, and strategic questions such as relations with the EU – in other words, whether he or she will make an active and positive contribution to Swiss society. We are constantly surprised by the quality of the answers, from people of all walks of life.
As is the case with most communities between Geneva and Lausanne, one-third of the population of our community is foreign, with English as a first or second language. We welcome all requests for naturalisation and do our best to help the candidates prepare for the interview with the municipality.
By the way, in answer to the question posed to Fundu Yilmaz, we prefer the Geneva region to Geneva itself…
Robert Middleton
Mayor, Crans-près-Céligny, Switzerland
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