As the title says, this article continues the topic of how making friends in Switzerland remains a challenge.

https://www.worldradio.ch/news/bitesize-news/couple-refused-passport-as-they-dont-have-friends/

by WonderfulHost7630

3 comments

  1. Ok, my family went through naturalization couple of years ago in Zug. In Zug we needed to provide contacts of 3 persons from the same municipality, whom authorities can call to confirm/talk/whatnot. The challenge is _municipality_. You are playing tennis in Cham tennis club or Ageri swim club with people from all over canton — no, it should be municipality. A lot of people have work-home-weekend style of life, and having people whom you can ask from a small municipality can be challenging. The fact that you _know_, say, a butcher in local Migros or a local butchery does not mean you can easily ask them to be a reference person. We are lucky, we have good neighbours with good relationship. In larger municipalities the problem can be alike — the place is large enough for everybody to be “on their own”. (I know a person who was denied naturalization _twice_ and succeeded on the third attempt only)

    And another point: from my observation, this (what is in the article) is not the only reason. Probably there is more to that, and this one is just one of the points that leaked to media.

    But obviously, it can be just… well, not being lucky with who’s the interviewer during the process.

  2. I’m genuinely curious if this actually a proxy war regarding social benefits/retirement. Because that could be me in 30 years, if I’m effectively stateless. So I’m curious how the retirement system is currently planned if you live and work in Switzerland 30yrs prior to retirement, but never gain citizenship.

  3. It’s SZ. They do everything to not allow someone to get citizenship. They set the requirements etc very high. Probably one of the worst cantons to try to get citizenship 

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