Schengen-Non and Black Ukranians

(Geneva, Switz.) - An interesting thing is happening here in Switzerland now that gives a little insight into a political environment that is sometimes even more overblown and melodramatic then the one the USA is subjecting itself to nowadays.

The Schengen Convention was an agreement signed first signed by 5 N. European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands) in 1985 with the goal to end border checkpoints and controls within their collective Schengen area and harmonize external border controls. Among other things, it meant that visas valid for one Schengen country are valid in all Schengen countries. Since 1985, most of Western Europe has signed the treaty, with much of the former communist bloch eager to sign up asap.

Although a signatory, Switzerland has not yet fully ratified the Schengen treaty. The treaty was ratified in Parliament, but an ultra right wing Swiss nationalist party the so-called 'Swiss People’s Party' prempted it going active by gathering enough signatures to force a referendum on the issue. This measure, which will happen on June 5th, is still likely to be passed in the referendum, but this group figured that it was their only chance to subvert the wishes of the parliamentary in Bern.

The government desperately wants Schengen to pass. The Schengen agreements permit free movement between Schengen member states by doing away with systematic checks on individuals at internal borders. They feel that free borders will be good for business, give access to common Schengen criminal databases, and be a boon to tourism. It warns that "in the event of a 'go-it-alone’ policy, Switzerland risks becoming a weak point in European security". There is also the good-will issue. It is constantly quipped that despite being surrounded on all sides, Switzerland is "not in Europe". They are famously neutral (whatever that means), but also not part of the EU, have secret banks, don't use the Euro, and even ....geez ... only joined the UN circa 1992. I think the main stream government thinks that denying Schengen will be seen as a symbolic act which will continue to isolate Switzerland in the heart of Europe.

Arguing against Schengen, are various ultra-right wing groups that wish to cultivate that isolation. The Swiss tradition of strong local control and a weak federalist system hints at a real under-current of xen0phobia that seeks to preserve Switzerland as island. It is part of the same Teutonic cultural current that one still finds in parts of Bavaria and Austria. Perhaps such feelings naturally come from an acquired cultural sense of living in isolated mountain villages where movement of people and influx of 'auslanders' were rare. I dunno. This cultural current is almost uniformly a part of German Switzerland and not French speaking Switzerland.

Such groups argue that Schengen is "the biggest threat" to the country’s sovereignty and security since the founding of the modern state in 1848. This is the faction that pushes, for instance, to maintain the citizenship rule requiring 3 generations of Swiss birth .... i.e. your relatives have to haved lived in Switzerland back to your great grandfather if you wish to become a citizen. They fear that the outsourcing of effective border controls to Brussels will result in the end of their way of life (not to be too dramatic).

In the lead up to the June vote, a new advertising campaign has been unveiled. In the last few weeks Schengen-Non has plastered posters all over town (and presumably the rest of CH) that shows cartoon images of men and women holding their hands up in horror at the thought of Schengen membership. The image above is one of these posters. The French translates to "Security lost, jobs lost? No to Schengen!"

It is a bizzare campaign as the images are so overblown as to be comical. They seem like a through-back to a 50's advertisements for starch where a house wife recoils in horror at her husband's wrinkled shirt-tails. I don't believe for us to stifle a laugh was the intended result ... as these people are very serious about their opposition. I really do like the artwork, but the message is something more insidious.

In my mailbox the other day was a slick brochure for this movement and among other things inside was a prominent bar graph showing a exponential increase in the "ukraniens noir" in Germany since Schengen was passed there. OH THE HORROR!!! CAN YOU IMAGINE!!!! ...being surrounded by black Ukranians?! (Actually here ' noir' is colloquial for illegal ... as in black market). There is a prominent map of Europe with Switzerland in white, the rest of Europe in black, and all these big angry red arrows pointing in on all sides showing the teaming locust hordes that will descend on their idyllic mountain kingdom if Schengen passes. Also check out the great cartoon of the boot emblazoned with 'EU' stamping on William Tell's crossbow.

I understand the complex issues regarding Schengen, but the whole thing in general I find rather remarkable as I usually find Europeans to be more politically reasonable. Switzerland can be different though. As a response this kind of politics are over the top. And this kind of outright xenophobia is something that, despite all the rest of the US's political pathologies, one could not get away with in mainstream politics there. The rest of the pamaphlet is an exercise in fear mongering and as one flips through it and the associated websites ... one can make out in the air the very faint wisps of ovens and burnt flesh. It is not 'it', but it is 'of it'.

The whole thing is also remarkable, because in the end, in any real operative sense, Schengen is a non-issue. Here in Geneva, people freely commute from France everyday. I have never been stopped and asked for my passport while riding my bike in from France. The borders are already open (and mostly not checked). And so like in the US these fiercely partisan issues are really, in the end, a culture war. It is about the old and the new. And like in the US, the 'old' is scared and people looking for power use that and say "Don't worry about all this. Don't worry about the modern world and gays getting married, and women's rights to choose, and black ukranians, and outsourcing of jobs to India. We will make it all go away. We will stop all of it. Right now." It is the same here as back in the US.

SO BEWARE the BLACK UKRANIANS ARE COMING!!!