Switzerland rules under direct democracy meaning,giving citizens an extraodinary amount of participation in the legislation process and granting them a maximum of political self-determination.
The amount of mass migration to Western European countries is known to all. The Swiss People Party’s rolled out an initiative expel foreign criminals even over very petty crimes. The initiative will be put to vote with public and if passed it would mean up to 18,000 foreigners could be expelled from Switzerland every year for what could be just two minor offences in past ten years. A major point to note is that a quarter of the country’s population is foreign passport holders.
What I would like to speak of is a video, filmed by a group of friends calling themselves Collective Bièvre, shows four white sheep chasing after a black sheep, mimicking the SVP’s controversial poster which shows a white sheep kicking a black sheep out of Switzerland.
However in the light-hearted video, when the white sheep catch up to the black, they embrace her in a group hug – and are quickly joined by several passers-by.
The video ends with the slogan: “Don’t be a sheep. You are not racist”.
Since the group published their video on Facebook it has been viewed 667,000 times, has over 11,000 shares and hundreds of comments, mostly positive.
My personal opinion, I was with Switzerland when in 2010 they passed a law to deport foreign nationals who committed serious offense as rape, murder and the likes, but for some petty offense such as traffic violations, fighting and indecent exposure deportation might be a big punishment.
Have a look at the video, I found it amusing and that’s what I call direct democracy where a video is used position Switzerland as a positive country and not intolerant and inhuman.
I am Swiss and I am not racist says this video https://t.co/luKyq4csH8
— Shweta dave (@shwetadave) February 28, 2016
A poll by gfs.bern earlier this month found 49% of those questioned opposed the text while 46% were in favour – but with five per cent still undecided, the vote could go either way.
India could learn something from them.
Yes Sir, loads to learn from Switzerland, discipline and good governance for starters.
I feel its ok to deport criminals back to their country but not for petty crimes. Then what defines if the crime is small or big enough to expel a person is a bigger argument. For a developed country traffic violation might be big crime but for people like us in India its usual affair.
So rightly said Arun, you summed it up perfectly.
Criminals should be deported back only when some serious offence is committed is my personal opinion. The video is really cool and thanks for the translation of the slogan shown at the end of the video Shweta 🙂
But again it all depends on that particular country like if a country wants to project itself to be safe and secure then may be this is the way that it can implement the laws and regulations easily and ensure that people follow it properly!
Yes deportation is too big for petty crimes for any country as these are times when no country can stand without bilateral trade and Switzerland is dependent on tourism so shouldn’t risk it at all.
I agree there…for small offenses penalties and fines should be put in place rather than deporting the foreigners..and that too for the petty crimes that were committed in last ten years. It is nice to know that Swiss people through this video are advocating fellow citizens to avoid falling in the trap of herd mentality.
Rightly said Bushra, here nothing is passed against peoples’ vote and that is the beauty of it. this resolution too got voted down.
Wonderful video .. thanks for share and i guess petty crimes will now go down considerably in Swiss. I am imagining how can this implemented in India .. just a thought 🙂
And .. check your twitter follow buttons in sidebar .. its not working
For India we first need very stringent punishment for big crimes as the crime rate is very very high in India. oh thank you for the twitter problem, ill check it now, you can follow me @shwetadave on twitter.
In my personal opinion, it is fine to deport criminals back to their own country provided it shouldn’t be necessarily for petty crimes.
Rightly said Maitreni 🙂
A crime is a Crime big or small is irrelevant.. I would like that law to be here in UK tooo ..
People just take for granted some of the laws and the leniancy of the law .. If people are visitng foreign country then they should respect the laws..
the problem is if small crime is left out , who descides what that crime is .. A Indecent exposure can leave a mark on a young person .. they might not recover from the shock ..
Bikram’s
Crime is a crime agreed Veerji, but deportation for a petty crime might be too much, small offences may be punishable but it should be aptly punishable isn’t it?
I agree with you , But then the question comes who decides what is petty .. moreover it is that countries Rule hence people need to abide by it always.
Its like we all have some rules etc in our own homes and if they are broken we get angry, now those rules may be petty for those who break them but for us they mean a lot ..
as I said earlier I would love such rules to be brought to this country UK, people just dont care about law anymore here … especially those who have immigrated which is such a shame …
Hello Shweta – my first time commenting here though have read several of your posts!
Regarding the case in point, deporting for minor offences might not be worth the effort for Swiss. For anything more than minor deporting is most certainly in place – and it should be followed rigorously. Else people start taking the law for granted like they do here in India. It’s the sad truth here. That’s the reason people think twice even before littering the streets of other lands whereas here, they give two hoots about it!
Firstly welcome to my site Vidya 🙂 so rightly said, lenient laws has shown us years of scams, sexual violence and uneven treatment for rich and poor, its time we change.
Always good to learn( more) Shweta. Thanks for sharing..
Thank you Sunaina 🙂
hey passed a law to deport foreign nationals who committed serious
offense as rape, murder and the likes, but for some petty offense such
as traffic violations, fighting and indecent exposure deportation might
be a big punishment. can it happen in India ? our motherland would be a place to live really but there are more people who used these people for their purpose. Nice post Shweta !!
Thank you Yogiji, When I look at a comparison with India I just get one feeling that most people in India just don’t value the kind of freedom the country provides, I love our country for all the right reasons 🙂
Many countries are coming up with some or other law to deport foreigners. I read a similar situation about Germany. They have strict policies for accepting refugees. I echo the same feelings for criminals as everybody else. It’s over-the-top measure, but sounds correct on many grounds.
Well Saru, Germany case may be different as Angela Merkel allowed one million migrants into Germany esplly form Africa and Middle East and sex violence has increased in the country since then. So blaming them towards stricter laws might not be completely right.
This seems to be a recurring theme across Europe which is faced with the Syrian migrants. But you are absolutely right… deportation for serious crimes is right, but not for minor offenses just for the sake of taking a stance. Nice video by the way. 🙂
You summed it perfectly Raj 🙂
We need to learn from them…
In this department yes, but India too is much better in a lot of other departments such as medical and experienced doctors than many forward countries.
This information may seem outrageous from our point of view, but in European countries this is for real.
Yes, for me all countries should have the harshest punishment for crime, but petty offenses such as traffic violation cant be so highly punished.
Racist? No. Intolerant? Hopefully crime and not people. And so, if a foreign national has to face dire consequences, an equally weighed punishment should be applicable to a Swiss citizen. That video drives a very positive message.
Yes Jyothi, quite agree with your point here, the question here is more of deportation for petty crimes, that is surely harsh 🙂
Oh… nice post. I am traveling next week to Switzerland. Hope to experience the positive side of Swiss People…
I do not know if Swiss are racist people or not? There are all kind of people in any society. Martina Hingis certainly has no problem with Sania Mirza. I had met one person along hiking trail in Canada. He appeared very opinionated. He had military training and usually looked at civilians with certain degree of contempt. My boss used to say, Swiss have a cork stuck up their you know where.
I accidentally bumped on this post from Indiblogger. I would like to agree they are racist as recently I came across an article in ET times now of the incident where Oprah Winfrey faced a racism issue. I have rewritten the same here http://handbagsforwomen.in/2016/03/15/oprah-winfrey-row-over-racism-for-handbag-shopping-incident/
Mostly this post might rethink if they are racist or not 🙂
Every country has good and bad people Switzerland is no exception.
totally agree…
Visiting your site for the first time. The post topic caught my attention, since it is one of those I follow.
Immigration is not new. But as a social issue it has gained lot of traction recently. One reason is the belief that it’s easier for these document-less people to indulge in crime.
Whether that assumption is right or wrong, there has to be some regulation when it comes to immigration. No modern country can shut its doors to migrants; and at the same time, no country can let them all in either.
Every nation needs to have a policy, guided by its self-interest on what the ceiling of migrants should be, and on effective enforcement of that policy.