AN ELECTION WITHOUT MIGRANTS IS NOT LEGITIMATE

Who are we?

We are activists and members of the Swiss Federation for Democratic Rights (IDHF). For nearly 20 years, IDHF has been a socialist mass political organisation working in Switzerland on academic, democratic, economic, cultural and migration issues, with a membership made up mostly of people from Turkey and North Kurdistan.

What do we demand?

We demand that every person who has turned 18 and has legally resided in Switzerland for the last five years be able to vote in local elections, regardless of their residence permit category (C, B, F, N, S and others).

A short history of voting rights

Throughout antiquity, in what we mostly know as city-states and commonly refer to as "Athenian democracy", the right to vote was granted only to free male citizens.

By the Middle Ages, in the parliaments that emerged alongside European monarchies, voting rights in England and France were still reserved for noblemen alone.

In the modern era, the struggle for freedom that gained momentum with the French Revolution in the 18th century advanced to a new stage after the workers' movements of the 19th century, bringing working men outside the nobility or the wealthy classes in the US and Europe the right to vote. Yet this right excluded women in both the US and the EU, and Black men in the US would be prevented from actually exercising this legally recognised right for many more years through concrete obstruction.

Women's right to vote, meanwhile, was won through a struggle that stretched all the way to the end of the 20th century. Among European countries, women first won the vote in Finland in 1906, and last in Switzerland, in 1971.

After nearly 200 years of struggle by the oppressed, the right to vote and to be elected is recognised today as a universal, constitutional right. We could say this right is one of the basic criteria by which a society is judged democratic. In authoritarian regimes, this right is effectively erased when opposition organising is suppressed by state power; in "democratic" Europe, meanwhile, it runs into a clear barrier for migrants — who make up an undeniably large share of society — in the form of citizenship law.

Why political participation matters

Democracy, broadly defined, is people governing themselves. We are not migratory birds who nest in Switzerland for the summer and leave in winter — we are, ultimately, part of life in Switzerland. The overwhelming majority of us work and pay taxes; many of us are married and have children who were born here. It would not be an exaggeration to say that for most of us, "Switzerland is our home." That is why wanting a say in shaping our present and future is no less natural a demand than wanting a voice in the place where we live. We do not need others deciding on our behalf, and that situation is simply incompatible with democracy. From the moment we set foot in this country, we hear endlessly about "integration" — yet integration is not possible within a system where we have no right to consent or to choose. A democracy in which different parts of the population are not represented is one step away from autocracy. That is a grave danger not only for us, but for the working people of Switzerland as well.

Why partial participation instead of full participation?

We want to state clearly at the outset that we are not at all opposed to full political representation and participation — that is, citizenship rights — being granted to all migrants without onerous conditions. But in a world, and especially in a Switzerland, where rising right-wing populist politics and its anti-migrant agenda resonate widely, that demand is not currently realistic. At the same time, Switzerland's cantonal federal system, organised from the bottom up, adds its own particular character to this question. As a result, there is barely a standard approach across many key issues — nearly every canton, and even every municipality, has its own distinct rules. In fact, the following cantons and municipalities already grant migrants voting rights under various conditions:

1. Neuchâtel ● Grants foreign nationals the right to vote at both cantonal level (in regional parliamentary elections) and municipal level (in local elections). ● Conditions: at least 5 years of residence in Switzerland, at least 1 year of residence in the canton.

2. Jura ● Foreign nationals may vote at municipal level. ● Conditions: at least 10 years of residence in Switzerland, the last 1 year in the canton.

3. Vaud ● Grants voting rights at municipal (local election) level. ● Conditions: over 18 years old, at least 10 years of residence in Switzerland, 3 years in the canton.

In addition, since 2020 an initiative by the SP, the Greens and the GLP has put this issue on the agenda of Zurich's cantonal parliament. In a vote held in Zurich in May 2023, the proposal was rejected 84 to 82 with 2 abstentions; in a vote in Basel's cantonal parliament in November 2024, a similar proposal was rejected 56 to 44. A related proposal submitted to Bern's cantonal parliament in 2024, to grant migrants the right to vote in local elections, has not yet reached a concrete outcome and does not currently appear on the parliamentary agenda.

All of this data shows us that in certain cantons where left-wing parties are strong and migrants live in large numbers, there is a fairly strong chance of achieving a positive result in the near term through focused work.

While aligning our efforts with existing structures already working on this issue remains a strategic goal, we believe that similar, parallel work carried out by different organisations will not, in fact, weaken one another — quite the opposite, it will strengthen the overall effort. So the more widespread the range of tools and demands used to pursue equal rights for migrants alongside the local population, the stronger the pressure this will generate.

What is our roadmap?

We see our core task as building the broadest possible consensus around correctly analysing the problem and creating the tools suited to it. Our primary audience in this respect is migrants themselves, as the people most directly affected by this issue. Alongside that, we are equally committed to building genuine alliances with progressive, democratic and revolutionary local forces as we weave a common line of struggle.

In the short term, our goal is to focus on building awareness and an organising network around our demand for a society with equal rights.

In the medium to long term, our goal is to produce compelling tools and campaigns to change discriminatory laws for lasting solutions.

Laying out a fully detailed roadmap from start to finish at this stage would be neither democratic nor realistic. The concrete organisations that people coming together around shared problems will build shall mature the next steps through their own internal democratic processes.

A long and difficult road lies ahead of us in turning the consciousness of an equal-rights democratic society into a widely shared demand — one capable of becoming a compelling, transformative force. It is shameful that in Switzerland, a country that prides itself in the 21st century on direct democracy, 30 percent of the population lives with no political rights at all, in conditions resembling a post-apartheid regime. Let us act together to put an end to this shame!

It should not be forgotten that the right to vote is not merely individual representation — it is the collective expression of political will. As long as we do not hold this right, we migrants are condemned to remain a marginalised mass with no voice in the society we live in. Through decisions made without us, we are exposed to labour exploitation, the housing crisis, discriminatory education policy, inequality in social assistance, and xenophobic practices. The right to vote is an organised response and a political tool of intervention against this inequality. It is the first step toward making our demands visible and taking our fate out of others' hands.

An election without migrant participation is not legitimate!

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