In an interview with the Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger, the most widely circulating newspaper in Switzerland, Political Science Professor Oliver Strijbis offers an enlightening explanation of why people with foreign roots are underrepresented in Swiss politics. Strijbis explains that people with an immigrant background tend to have more trouble asserting themselves within political parties and that this problem extends to countries other than Switzerland. In Switzerland, it takes a relatively long time for someone to become a naturalized citizen, which means that migrants may necessarily start their political career late. According to Strijbis, contrary to popular belief, migrant groups are quite interested in politics. The Alevis and the Kurds are two examples of migrant groups who remain particularly engaged, and it is no coincidence that they are represented in the National Council by Sibel Arslan and Mustafa Atici. For people who come for economic reasons from authoritarian countries, it is difficult to become actively involved in politics because they are not used to voting and being elected.
Professor Strijbis further elaborates that if more people with an immigrant background suddenly voted in Switzerland, there would be no marked shifts because it would be restricted to a slight increase for the Socialist Party (SP), and a small decrease for the right populist Swiss People’s Party (SVP). He explains that people from the former Yugoslavia, Turkey, or African countries vote less for the SVP because the party used to frame them as a problem. However, people from EU countries vote almost identically to Swiss locals, many of whom would vote for the SVP.
If a general right to vote for foreigners were implemented, Strijbis asserts that more migrants would be attracted to politics because they would be socialized into Swiss politics already before being naturalized. He shares that research from Scandinavia shows that the earlier migrants can participate in political processes, the higher their turnout later. Regarding whether it is positive that dual citizens can sometimes vote in several countries, Strijbis explains that for the sake of democratic legitimacy, it is generally true that the higher the voter participation, the better. On the other hand, dual citizenship can be problematic because some can vote in multiple countries, and others cannot. The principle of “one man, one vote” is thus invalidated. The decisive question is, therefore, what weight the votes from abroad will carry. This question also applies to Swiss citizens living abroad.
Strijbis explains that the right to vote should be linked to whether someone is affected by the decisions and fulfills duties such as paying taxes. For Swiss citizens living abroad, however, this is only partly true. Hence, a restriction would be appropriate pertaining to Swiss abroad in that one could form a separate electoral district for the Swiss abroad and distribute proportionally fewer seats in relation to the number of voters. Strijbis concludes that today, the Swiss abroad voting in small cantons sometimes have more influence in elections than a person living in the canton of Zurich.