{"id":38688,"date":"2026-04-13T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swissmig.unine.ch\/?p=38688"},"modified":"2026-04-03T11:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:40:11","slug":"swiss-by-ancestry-genuine-and-strategic-nativism-in-naturalization-procedures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swissmig.unine.ch\/?p=38688","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Swiss by ancestry\u2019: Genuine and strategic nativism in naturalization procedures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Author(s):Wegahta B. Sereke, Stefan Manser-Egli, Barbara von R\u00fctte<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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Source: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/migration\/mnag004<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A letter from the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) recently asked a naturalization applicant to provide reference contacts who are, preferably, \u2018Swiss by ancestry\u2019. This instance foregrounds how naturalization regimes materialize boundaries of belonging. This article examines how imaginaries and hierarchies of citizenship are shaped and re\/produced in naturalization procedures. It takes Switzerland as a case study to analyse this question through an examination of the naturalization requirement to be \u2018familiar with the Swiss way of life\u2019 and, in particular, to \u2018maintain contact with Swiss citizens\u2019 and the \u2018native population\u2019. The article analyses legal provisions, the interpretation of the law, street-level bureaucratic practice, and interviews with naturalization candidates to carve out what is considered the \u2018Swiss way of life\u2019 and the \u2018Swiss citizen\u2019 to establish contact with. The analysis reveals both nativist and universalist citizenship imaginaries. Naturalization authorities and candidates engage in a matrix of what is theorized as genuine\/strategic universalism\/nativism. While some authorities explicitly require referees to be \u2018Swiss by ancestry\u2019 and exclude naturalized citizens (genuine nativism), other authorities and some naturalization candidates explicitly include naturalized citizens in their imaginaries of Swiss referees (genuine universalism). In between, there is what we identify as strategic nativism: naturalization candidates strategically submit \u2018native Swiss\u2019 as referees to prove their \u2018integration\u2019 and minimize the risk of rejection. Overall, the article demonstrates how, despite ostensibly universalist legal provisions, nativist accounts of \u2018Swiss citizen\u2019 and \u2018native population\u2019 prevail, and how citizenship is continually negotiated and shaped by social hierarchies, racialization, and power relations.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author(s):Wegahta B. Sereke, Stefan Manser-Egli, Barbara von R\u00fctte Source: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/migration\/mnag004<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[854,7,281,70,9,154,93,629,91,621],"class_list":["post-38688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-854","tag-article","tag-belonging","tag-citizenship","tag-english-language","tag-interviews","tag-naturalization","tag-racialization","tag-social-integration","tag-street-level-bureaucracy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swissmig.unine.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swissmig.unine.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swissmig.unine.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swissmig.unine.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swissmig.unine.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/swissmig.unine.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38689,"href":"https:\/\/swissmig.unine.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38688\/revisions\/38689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swissmig.unine.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swissmig.unine.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swissmig.unine.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}