Prevention of Right-Wing Extremism, Xenophobia and Racism in ...

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MIRYAM ESER DAVOLIO; BRIGITTA GERBER; MONIQUE ECKMANN & MATTHIAS DRILLING The Special Case of Switzerland: Research Findings and Thoughts from a Context-Oriented Perspective With publications containing contributions for international comparison, there is always the question of how objective an overview the individual authors can produce about specifi c na tio nal framework conditions and national achievements. Although four of us, with our very dif ferent backgrounds, including German-speaking and French-speaking Swiss perspectives, colla borated in writing this chapter, it represents a “coordinated” conglomerate of various sources and references that surely cannot be be conclusive and fully comprehensive. We set a priority on a context-oriented perspective (see sections 3 and 4) based on our current and previous research projects in the area of xenophobia, racism, and right-wing extremism, which have repeatedly demonstrated to us the relevance and interaction of contextual factors. While this approach is not representative of Swiss research in these areas generally, by choosing this perspective we hope to give the reader, in addition to an overview, an impetus to further develop innovative approaches for countering xenophobia and right-wing extremism. Right-wing extremism and xenophobia in Switzerland Xenophobia in Switzerland seems to be quite a virulent problem. A recent representative study (Haenni Hoti, in press) of Swiss teenagers (15 years old, N = 3104) showed that 38 % strongly agreed that immigrants should assimilate somewhat better to the Swiss lifestyle, and 22 % strongly support the idea that immigrants living in Switzerland should not be allowed to take part in political activities. One quarter of the teenagers agree that immigrants should be sent back to their country of origin when jobs are scarce. The results of the Civic Education Study, an international comparative study conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (Torney-Purta, Leh- mann, Oswald & Schulz, 2001) indicates that Swiss teenagers have relatively more negative attitudes towards immigrants: Swiss respondents ranked 27th out of 28 countries on “positive attitudes towards immigrants.” The results of the the recently conducted project “Monitoring right-wing attitudes, xenophobia and misanthropy in Switzerland: an explorative study” (Cattacin, Gerber, Sardi & Wegener, 2006) recently conducted under auspices of the National Research Programme 40+ and funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation are available at the Web site wwww.unige.ch/ses/socio. While the study, the fi rst of its kind in Switzerland, was designed to enable comparisons with several main European surveys, a comparison with the German GMF-Survey (Heitmeyer, 2003, 2004, 2005) is of particular interest. The central idea of the project is to provide an initial inin- depth analysis of the data and to give the scientifi c community open access to the data for the further research. 30 The Special Case of Switzerland
A Swiss peculiarity is the municipal responsibility for the naturalization of foreign residents. In the context of popular votes and decision-making processes, the rejection of naturalization can be an expression of social exclusion and xenophobia among the Swiss population. Initial results of a study on this topic (see Helbling & Kriesi, 2004, 2005) show that economic factors such as the perceived unemployment rate or the ratio of foreigners living in the municipality do not signifi cantly infl uence the rejection rates, which can instead be explained by the domi- nant local understanding of national citizenship, formal decision-making structures, and the mobilization of political actors. In the early 1990s, the level of right-wing extremist violence in Switzerland reached a level nearly equal to that found in Germany. From 1989 to 1991 there were 13 fatalities in Switzer- land per capita, a number higher than that of other other European countries (Altermatt & Kriesi, 1995). Moreover, observations revealed a trend towards increased politicization (Eidgenös- (Eidgenös- sisches Justiz- und Polizeidepartement, 2000, 2001) radicalization, and violence in the Swiss right-wing extremist scene (compare Marquis, 1999). In French-speaking Switzerland, where the rise of right-wing extremism is perceived as less of a problem, new organizations are cropping up up (Stutz, 2001), and appear to be following the same trend towards politicization. In addition, in many border areas close contacts are being maintained with radical foreign groups. As of 2000 skinheads have dominated the right-wing extremist scene in Switzerland. Most recently, especially in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, the skinheads have been attracting increasingly younger people, and it is known that some of these groups have offshoots in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Switzerland. Niggli and Frischknecht (1998) reported that two organizations decisively infl uenced the scene during the 1990s: the Schweizer Ham- merskins (SHS), the leading network since its formation in 1994, and the Nationale Initiative Schweiz (NIS), which seeks to politicize the scene by advocating the formation of a political party. A third, particularly militant skinhead group, Blood & Honour Schweiz, operates mainly in the Cantons of Aargau, Bern, Baselland, Vaud, and Zurich according to the most recent report from the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police, Staatsschutzbericht [National Security Report, 2000] (Eidgenössisches Justiz- und Polizeidepartement, 2001). In 2000 the federal police estimated the hard core in the Swiss skinhead scene to number between 800 to 900 persons, who are active not only in the cantons mentioned above, but also in Lucerne and Eastern Switzerland (D’Amato & Gerber, 2002). It is important to note that the problem is not restricted to Swiss nationalist right-wing extremist groupings such as skinheads (see Grünberg & Eckmann, 1999), but that it also includes diverse manifestations that while generated in other contexts adhere to comparable right-wing extremist ideologies. In addition to the “hard-core scene” dominated by the skinheads, the number of other young people who sympathize with and are thus also caught up in the movement is diffi cult to estimate. According to Eckert, explanations of right-wing extremism cannot be restricted to a social psychological perspective (Eckert, 1993). What is needed is an understanding of a social context that, by trivializing racist discourse and normalizing right-wing extremist discourse (Altermatt & Kriesi, 1995), creates a climate tolerant of right-wing extremism (Balibar The Special Case of Switzerland 31
Page 1 and 2: Prevention of Right-Wing Extremism,
Page 3: Contents Michaela Glaser Introducti
Page 6 and 7: these developments (Minkenberg, 200
Page 8 and 9: institutional framework of this pol
Page 10 and 11: lum. In addition, schools are requi
Page 12 and 13: YNGVE CARLSSON Violent Right-Wing E
Page 14 and 15: Boot Boys. They emphasize physical
Page 16 and 17: The economic explanation Norway is
Page 18 and 19: danger is of course that the proble
Page 20 and 21: “tool-bags”. In other cases the
Page 22 and 23: and Norwegian communities are trans
Page 24 and 25: The effects of such demonstrations
Page 26 and 27: Building personal relations as a st
Page 28 and 29: there is of course a possibility th
Page 32 and 33: & Wallerstein, 1988). Right-wing ex
Page 34 and 35: If younger people exhibit right-win
Page 36 and 37: had very different effects on attit
Page 38 and 39: For each specifi c fi eld, the the
Page 40 and 41: the problems of right-wing extremis
Page 42 and 43: The networking among community acto
Page 44 and 45: could be most successful, because i
Page 46 and 47: Eser Davolio, Miryam & Drilling, Ma
Page 48 and 49: GÉ GRUBBEN Right-Extremist Sympath
Page 50 and 51: in the way in which they accentuate
Page 52 and 53: digit membership. The mobility of t
Page 54 and 55: Strategies for combating prejudice,
Page 56 and 57: The government Right-wing extremism
Page 58 and 59: Anti discrimination organizations T
Page 60 and 61: shortfall of thorough research and
Page 62 and 63: From intercultural education to act
Page 64 and 65: Appendix - Educational and children
Page 66 and 67: Experience shows that many particip
Page 68 and 69: Reliable information on members of
Page 70 and 71: to sympathy with the National Socia
Page 72 and 73: extremist activities cannot be reac
Page 74 and 75: do so, social work not only has to
Page 76 and 77: not neglect content-related dimensi
Page 78 and 79: Pingel, Andrea & Rieker, Peter (200
Page 80 and 81:
Black people 23 are a lot more like
Page 82 and 83:
stances that encouraged members of
Page 84 and 85:
upon the forces of law and order th
Page 86 and 87:
landscape in contrast to the previo
Page 88 and 89:
Dealing with racism in schools Havi
Page 90 and 91:
New Labour, racism and education In
Page 92 and 93:
REWIND: This organisation carries o
Page 94 and 95:
Gillborn, David & Mirza, Heidi (200
Page 96 and 97:
GYÖRGY LIGETI & TAMÁS NYESTE Righ
Page 98 and 99:
A multitude of amateur bands have s
Page 100 and 101:
ner portraying all possible stereot
Page 102 and 103:
like their children to get their fi
Page 104 and 105:
a so-called Árpád striped fl ag,
Page 106 and 107:
The Holocaust Memorial Center (www.
Page 108 and 109:
Youth work Mobilitas Youth Service
Page 110 and 111:
their programmes and projects. Rece
Page 112 and 113:
exclusion, but that they would then
Page 114 and 115:
fi remen are often greeted by stone
Page 116 and 117:
not want to meet. For example, I’
Page 118 and 119:
disserts about Islam, saying that i
Page 120 and 121:
liceman, which caused quite uproar,
Page 122 and 123:
seat, calmed, quiet. This from a ra
Page 124 and 125:
situation, which is also institutio
Page 126:
Gé Grubben: higher professional ed
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