Switzerland Today

Dear Swiss Abroad,

Happy Valentine’s Day! (There’s still time to run to the shops…) But what will it be: flowers, lingerie or chocolates? Apparently that depends on where you live in Switzerland, according to a survey we published a few years ago.

This content was published on February 14, 2023 - 18:00

5 minutes

Born in London, Thomas was a journalist at The Independent before moving to Bern in 2005. He speaks all three official Swiss languages and enjoys travelling the country and practising them, above all in pubs, restaurants and gelaterias.

In the news: The number of unauthorised entries into Germany via Switzerland rocketed from 1,610 to 8,862 between the first and second half of last year.

The head of the German Federal Police Union said the figures were unsurprising. “Turning people back, like [Germany can do] at the Austrian border, is not possible at the Swiss border,” he told the German newspaper Bild today. “The [German] interior ministry still refuses to register border controls with Switzerland with the EU and thus deliberately shifts responsibility to the states and municipalities.”
Geneva’s city council has amended its regulations for public sports facilities to allow people to wear burkinis in the city’s swimming pools. The right-wing Swiss People’s Party has already announced that it will launch a referendum against this change.
The Löhr plum, ideal for producing plum brandy, has been named Swiss fruit of the yearExternal link for 2023. The small, yellowish-red stone fruit, Prunus domestica“Löhrpflaume”, are juicy, aromatic and sweet, said Fructus, the association for the promotion of old fruit varieties.

Guantánamo prisoner — Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

Will Switzerland take some of the remaining 30 or so detainees still held in the US prison at Guantánamo Bay? The issue has been raised in diplomatic discussions between Switzerland and the United States.

Only 34 detainees are still in Guantánamo out of some 780 incarcerated since the prison opened in Cuba in 2002. Many of them have never been tried. Twenty are considered “releasable”, mostly from Yemen. But where to send them? The US refuses to accept them or to send them to unstable regions of the world like Yemen. Washington is therefore actively seeking host countries.

The question of receiving some of these detainees in Switzerland has been raised between the Swiss ambassador in Washington, Jacques Pitteloud, and Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, according to a report published todayExternal link by Swiss public radio, RTS. “The subject is raised sporadically by the United States,” according to Cassis’s office, but for the time being no official request is on the table. The foreign ministry refuses to comment further.

RTS points out that although the issue is politically sensitive, Switzerland would have an interest in receiving one or two prisoners. At the end of the 2000s, when the Swiss financial centre was under heavy pressure and Swiss bank UBS was threatened with prosecution on the other side of the Atlantic, the reception of three former Guantánamo prisoners, one Uzbek and two Uyghurs in 2009 and 2010 respectively, helped to break the deadlock.

Today, relations between Washington and Bern are good. The government’s decision to buy American F-35 jets was appreciated. Hosting detainees would be an additional argument for Switzerland in the current negotiations on economic agreements between the two countries, particularly with a view to a possible free-trade agreement.

How prestigious is your job? Medical specialists enjoy the highest standing in Switzerland, according to a survey. At the bottom of the hierarchy are kitchen assistants.

University professors, executives, pilots and judges also achieved the highest valuesExternal link, according to a survey of 1,500 people. At the other end of the table, cleaning and packaging professions as well as factory workers and shop cashiers are found alongside kitchen help, Social Change in Switzerland said in a statementExternal link today.

In the middle of the ranking are service and craft occupations. In contrast to the past, blue-collar workers are often more respected than people in low-skilled service occupations, the researchers noted.

The two main factors explaining why an occupation is held in high regard were education and income; the proportion of women or migrants in an occupation had no influence. Similarly, for most occupations the assessment of prestige did not differ much when respondents were presented with an occupation in the female or male form (saleswoman vs salesman). Exceptions were the professions of beautician and midwife, where the female version is more prestigious, and the professions of firefighter and carpenter, where the male form is more prestigious.

The Swiss results matched international results for the most part, with two exceptions: in Switzerland, technical and nursing occupations learnt in vocational education and training had a higher standing than at the international level. However, professions such as saleswoman, secretary or office worker had a lower reputation in Switzerland than at the international level.