No immigrant, incl. most poeple in the forum, can alter the fact that the said place is Switzerland and nothing else.

I often say: There are facts in life, one just have to take as fact and don't fool around with. (Es gibt Fakten im Leben, mit denen man sich einfach abfinden muss). Better translation welcome.

This shouldn't be a problem for Novartis. They'll simply annex the rest of their site to France hire everyone on the French side, paying their income taxes into the French system. They already straddle the border and have already unilaterally moved the border before, so this should be a walk in the park.

Well Adjani and Dion certainly speak at least one of the Swiss languages, and I'll bet Twain does as well!

(don't know about the others)

Tom

Old English saying:
Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men.

I disagree.

Why German?

I have no need of German!

Italian and Rumantsch work fine for me!

OK, I do use German when I go to Italy sometimes (Alto-Adige).

Tom

The links mention that Athina Rousse has a French father, Tina Turner has a Swiss partner and Shania Twain learned French in 2000.

Or if their SO doesn't speak English!

Actually, the only language course I've taken in Switzerland was Rumantsch, but it was sort of as a hobby.

Tom

And not to forget, last time that CH won the Eurovision song contest was with Dion singing, so I guess she's earned it!

Tom

I'm all right to, I speak three out of four national languages. Only one of them was hobby: Rumantsch

When I moved to NZ, I had to demonstrate a sufficient level of English to get my student and my permanent resident permits (can't remember about the work permit).

That wasn't the case in Valais last time I checked.

Ignoring Blocher's exact words, I think it's reasonable to expect people willing to reside in Switzerland for an extended length of time to learn one of the local languages.

I'm really annoyed at people who move to a country and don't make any effort to learn the local language; I call that plain laziness. And often it feels that those very same people are the most vocals about criticizing the country they have moved to.

Just my 2c.

you deserve a medal.

Ironically, I learned my German from a Sicialian by hanging around his motorcycle shop after work and helping out (and also learned the few things I didn't already know about Guzzis and Ducatis).

Should have had him teach me Italian as well, though I didn't know I'd need it at the time.

He's one of the few people with whom that our communication languages has migrated from French, to Swiss-German, to Italian.

Tom

Are you sure about that? 2 or 3 years there was a federal decision that the second language to be taught in all Swiss schools was to be English.

Here is a Swissinfo article that might shed some light

forget about it, thats all just cheap populism by Christoph Blocher and the SVP

A senior SVP delegate declared today that English folks would of course not need to learn Swiss languages, because they are not the intended audience.

this whole idea was just for keeping the foreigner-topic hot, it would generate huge resistance from economic syndicates - its just nonsense.

I know that SVP are just doing their election propaganda thingie, and now FDP will follow their path:
http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/schweiz/...story/17617409

yes, this development in Switzerland is really really worrying...good job SVP!

Can I sugest an addendum to the proposal???

Language test for any person moving to a new Canton or accepting a job in a different Canton than they live - regardless of Nationality...

ex. Swiss born person raised/lived all his or her life in Zurich, doesn't speak a word of French any more - must do a French language test before being allowed to move to Geneva.

The SVP's view of immigration is clearly aiming at eradicating legal immigration from africa, non-EU eastern europe, balkans, asian, south-america.
After language selection, they will introduce later other criteria: not qualified enough, too tall, too small, too dark, too sick, potentially sick, crooked teeth, muslim, animist, buddhist. Only the fittest will be accepted. It will look like those captain's selecting and checking slaves before embarking them on slave ships.
The worrying thing is initiatives by SVP will receive support from population. It's about time for international organizations like UN promoting peace and tolerance to seek for another host country.....maybe somewhere in Africa.

__________________
Resist, support, donate: ACLU
They tried to bury us, they did not know that we are seeds (Mexican proverb)

Will Novartis pay LESS taxes in France than they do in Switzerland right now? Will it really be that much easier to get workers on the French side of the border than it would be on the Swiss if these rules go into effect?

Maybe it's a good thing. The SVP has forced the other parties to stop ignoring the people's worries about foreigners / immigration.
Probably they'll come up with better solutions than the SVP.
«Einwanderung gezielt steuern zum Nutzen der Schweiz.» («Consciously controlling immigration for make benefit glorious nation of Switzerland»), I can get behind that.