| 1990 | Almost weekly violent attacks, including Molotov cocktail attacks, occur against Foreigners. |
| Apr 12, 1990 | The Swiss government announces that Portuguese citizens can now claim permanent residence ("C" permits) after an uninterrupted stay of 5 years instead of 10 years. British, Dutch and French citizens are the only other foreign residents who have this abbreviated waiting period. |
| Jun 11, 1990 | The Swiss government announces plans to loosen its strict regulations and allow more Foreigners to enter the country in order to ease the country's chronic work shortage. The new rules are aimed particularly at finding health workers and technical specialists. |
| 1991 | Almost weekly attacks, including Molotov cocktail and arson attacks, occur against Foreigners. |
| Feb 11, 1991 | Swiss troops are deployed in joint patrols with customs officials along the country's borders in order to stem the flood of illegal immigration. |
| Oct 1991 | Right-wing fringe parties, opposing immigration among other things, make large gains in parliamentary elections. For example, the Automobile Party, known mainly for wanting fewer controls on cars and more on immigrants, won 8 out of 200 seats (up from 2 seats). |
| Oct 1991 | A large, diverse anti-racist front is formed at the initiative of the Evangelical Ecclesiastical Federation to condemn both assaults on Foreigners and the government's weak-kneed policy response. The new group urges politicians to refrain from electoral appeals playing on racism and xenophobia. |
| Oct 21, 1991 | Several thousand people in Zurich demonstrate against racism and xenophobia. |
| 1992 | The sporadic violent attacks against Foreigners continue. Foreigners, over 22% of the gainfully employed population in Switzerland, account for a disproportionate 40% of country's unemployed. The Swiss Federal Assembly makes naturalization easier in several respects. Foreign husbands of Swiss citizens can claim Swiss citizenship after 3 years of marriage. Also, it is no longer necessary for one to give up his original citizenship when receiving Swiss citizenship. |
| Jul 1992 | Voters in the canton of Vaud and the cantonal government of Zug refuse to grant Foreigners local-level voting rights. |
| Oct 1992 | The Federal Council adopts a new regulation on foreign labor. Citizens of EC and EFTA countries constitute a "first circle" of recruitment sources. A second circle, consisting of citizens of the US, Canada and the former Communist nations of Eastern and Central Europe, would be subject to a quota system. Immigration by citizens of the third circle countries, including Turkey and the former Yugoslavia, is practically prohibited. |
| Dec 6, 1992 | Swiss voters narrowly reject a referendum to join the European Economic Area. Anti-foreign sentiment plays a role in this defeat. Joining the EEA would eventually lead to a loosening of Switzerland's tight immigration laws. |
| 1993 | There are sporadic attacks against Foreigners, including 3 fire bombings. |
| 1994 | Violent attacks upon Foreigners continue but are less frequent. |
| Mar 1994 | Critics say a new law cracking down on asylum-seekers who engage in crime infringes upon civil rights and has the potential to stir up anti-foreign sentiment. The new law greatly increases police arrest and search powers. It also allows for the detention of Foreigners found without identification for up to 3 months and for an additional 9 months if the authorities decide that they are to be deported. |
| Apr 19, 1994 | Amnesty international expresses concern about reports that the Swiss police are using unwarranted violence against Foreigners and immigrants in custody. |
| Jun 12, 1994 | Swiss voters reject a government proposal that would have made it easier for children of immigrants to become citizens. |
| Jun 22, 1994 | Hundreds of young Swiss hold a one-hour strike to protest what they see as Switzerland's isolation and xenophobia. |
| Sep 23, 1994 | Swiss voters approve a law against racism. The law is modeled after the 1965 UN convention on racial discrimination. |
| Dec 4, 1994 | Swiss voters approve a law authorizing the government to take strict measures against foreign nationals who are "deemed to show improper behavior." (see March 1994 for details of law) |
| Feb 15, 1995 | Hundreds of demonstrators march through central Zurich chanting anti-racism slogans and handing out leaflets in protest at a Swiss police crackdown on Europe's largest drug scene. The demonstrators claim that the crackdown is repressive and will lead to unfair treatment of Foreigners. |
| Feb 20, 1995 | The Swiss city of Zurich ended its free drugs and clean needles to addicts program after increased violence and foreign gangs made it too dangerous. Over half the 3,500 addicts supplied each day were Foreigners, who were subsequently deported. (Baltimore Sun 2/20/95) |
| Apr 21, 1995 | Swiss police cracked down on about 30 people who married Swiss women to gain legal immigrant status. The women received between 15,000 and 30,000 Swiss francs (about 13,000 and 26,000 U.S. dollars) to marry what police suspected were mainly Pakistani drug smugglers, who could then apply for residency. (Xinhua News Agency 4/21/95) |
| Jun 25, 1995 | The Swiss voted against (54%) a new bill that proposed to make it easier for Foreigners to buy property. The reforms would have enlarged the quota of holiday homes that could be sold to Foreigners from 1,420 a year to 4,000 every two years and would have eliminated the quotas on foreign residents buying property for their own use, on distress sales, or sales by one foreigner to another. Foreign-owned companies also would no longer have had to obtain permits to buy property for their businesses. (London Financial Times 6/26/95) |
| Jun 28, 1995 | The mayor of Geneva instituted a series of 14 district councils, which could serve as fora for Foreigners who wanted to discuss how the city was run. The Foreigners would still not be allowed to vote. (USA Today 6/28/95) |
| May 2, 1996 | All four parties on the Swiss Federal Council agreed for the first time to expand talks with the EU on trade issues. Further, they agreed to consider such EU policies as the end of obligatory preferential treatment of domestic over Foreign Workers and the replacement of the quota system in immigration. The talks eventually stalled on the latter issue, however. (Swiss Review of World Affairs 5/2/96 and European Report 5/16/96) |
| Jul 17, 1996 | The OECD noted that unemployment in Switzerland was on the rise, and particularly affected Foreigners. (AFX News 7/17/96) |
| Oct 25, 1996 | The UN Committee on Human Rights criticized Switzerland for its poor treatment of Foreigners during police interrogation, and recommended training police to avoid "particular behavior depending on the skin color or origin of those arrested." (Agence France Presse 10/25/96) |
| Dec 4, 1996 | In an effort to gain a trading agreement with the EU, the Swiss government agreed to scrap the quotas of work permits for EU citizens over the course of six years, unless an influx of Foreigners arrived in the intervening time. Trading negotiations later stalled for a year over an unrelated transportation issue. Some had argued that the permits were not necessary, since of the 170,000 work permits available each year, only 60% were filled. (London Financial Times 12/5/96) |
| Aug 17, 1998 | According to the Swiss federal statistics office, the growth of the Swiss population fell to a seven-year low in 1997, as more natives and Foreigners left the country than entered. Population growth had fallen steadily each year since 1991, mainly because the numbers of Foreigners immigrating to Switzerland has halved in the period, falling to 69,000 in 1997. (Agence France Presse 8/17/98) |
| Oct 1998 | The Conference of the Swiss Criminal Justice Offices (KSBS) adopted a resolution urging the federal government in Berne to set up internment camps in military barracks for foreign criminals. The barracks would house the criminals until they could be deported, which could take years if their paperwork was incomplete or their lives would be in danger in their own country. Of the roughly 57,800 criminals registered in Switzerland in 1997, just over half - 51.5 per cent - were Foreigners. (Deutsche Presse-Agentur 11/10/98) |
| Jun 13, 1999 | Switzerland voted to tighten up its asylum laws following an influx of refugees from Kosovo. Every Swiss canton had voted for the tougher measures, which would allow the federal government to curb asylum seekers. (London Financial Times 6/14/99) |
| Oct 24, 1999 | The nationalist Swiss People's Party or SVP, vaulted from fourth place into first during federal elections. Initial returns gave the SVP some 23 percent of the vote, up 8 percent since 1995 elections. The party promised populist tax cuts and stoked fear of crime from immigrants and insecurity about jobs. Switzerland did take in huge numbers of Kosovo refugees and the population of Asians, Africans and other Foreigners has grown in recent years. Swiss unemployment remains among the lowest in Europe, around 3 percent. (National Public Radio 10/25/99) |
