You may have seen the article in the Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2938940.ece
which highlights the anti-foreigner policies of the SVP, a major political party here.
So is this country where I have lived for 16 years any more racist than any other country in Europe?
Probably not.
Being outside of the EU it is still legal to advertise jobs or apartments for Swiss only, but it is getting rarer that that happens, but it still does. There are groups of neo-nazis that beat up dark skinned Swiss and Foreigners alike, but then there are in UK and Germany too.
It is however true that a lot of foreigners are implicated in crime, but this is the fault of insufficient integration, and not allowing refugees to validly seek employment.
Unfortunately those who commit crime get all of us foreigners a bad name.
But 1 in 5 here is foreign. Switzerland needs its foreign workers, the country could well collapse without us. Personally, I have met with racism yes. As a white European I have been refused an apartment on the grounds of me being foreign, but that was a long time ago, and the people were old. Old people have their own ways. And I was pregnant, so that scared them too 
Otherwise I have found people really friendly and helpful, and I have dark skinned friends who also have not met open racism here.
The SVP is unfortunately a right wing party that uses foreigners as scapegoats for all the countries ills. They act as a cover for neo-nazis, especially among the young. And now they are getting Switzerland a bad name abroad. I think it will swing back, the Swiss will kick back against the white sheep, black sheep concept. That is one of the great benefits of our democratic system here.
Actually, we have now got the papers to apply for citizenship here, so then we will be no longer foreigners, except of course we are. 
09/09/07 @ 06:49