ABSTRACT
Cheese and mountains apart, Switzerland is often noted for its high proportion of foreigners and tough legislation on naturalisation. It is the home of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), even by European standards one of the most successful populist right-wing parties campaigning among other things against many forms of immigration and the expansion of migrants’ participatory rights. 1 In this chapter, we examine the politicisation of immigration and integration in Switzerland in a systematic manner. A brief historical overview sets the context, and four kinds of explanations for differences in politicisation across time (and compared with other countries) are covered in detail. Even though Switzerland is a single polity, we will discuss differences between the French-speaking and the German-speaking part of the country when these are relevant. 2
