An applicant for Swiss citizenship has won his court battle against his commune’s refusal of naturalisation after judges ruled many of the questions he was asked were “inadmissible”.
According to the court, the naturalisation commission in the town of Birr, in the canton of Argau where the applicant has lived since 1996, had asked him, “numerous arbitrary questions” in his citizenship test that should not have been asked as part of the naturalisation process.
In all, 23 out of 48 questions were found to be “inadmissible.”
The court has referred the case back to the municipal council with the clear instruction to grant the man, a Kosovo national, his Swiss citizenship, saying he fulfils all the legal requirements.
And there is a further twist
The man in question was not an immigrant per se – he was born and grew up in Switzerland – one more thing in his favour, the court said.
Concretely, it ruled that anyone born and raised in Switzerland is “presumed” to be familiar with the local way of life.
“To deviate from this presumption, clear evidence is needed,” and this evidence was lacking in the case of the Kosovar man, according to the court.
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‘Astonished and shaken’
Birr is not taking the court ruling in favour of the Kosovar man lying down.
Barbara Gloor, the town’s mayor, said that she was “astonished and shaken” by the court’s decision, explaining that the commission found the candidate was not fully integrated.
The municipality is therefore considering an appeal to the Federal Supreme Court.
READ MORE: How your Swiss commune plays a key role in your citizenship application
What questions did the court rule to be ‘arbitrary’ and ‘inadmissible’ in the case of the applicant?
Unfortunately, the specific questions the applicant was asked have not been made public, but we have looked up the list of the questions that municipalities in Aargau are typically putting to their candidates for naturalisation.
They are intended to assess the applicant’s level of integration in and knowledge of their local community.
These are just some of them:
- What do you know about the waste disposal system in our community?
- What school events are you familiar with?
- Where is the nearest train station?
- Which public buildings in our community are you familiar with?
- What are the names of the neighbouring communities?
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Wrong sport
Simply being born in Switzerland is, however, not enough to gain citizenship in the canton of Aargau, or any Swiss canton for that matter, and this most recent case is not the sole example of arbitrary decisions.
Several years ago, another case made headlines after this canton turned down a naturalisation request from a young woman born and raised in Switzerland after an interview with a local commission reportedly included 70 ‘bizarre’ questions about her personal life and hobbies.
But the decisive ‘nein’ was based on her answer to the question of a typical Swiss sport: She named skiing rather than ‘Schwingen’ (wrestling).
READ MORE: The bizarre reasons applicants have been denied Swiss citizenship
