For the past two months, I have been more than 3,000 miles and an ocean away from home. That gives me a right to completely disconnect from everything happening in Quebec, right?
Wrong.
Of course, my natural political-blogging side had to come back up eventually, especially with the April 7th Quebec general elections just around the corner. The corruption allegations made against the PQ as well as their Charter of Values-based reelection platform have been felt even thousands of miles away. If I didn’t think watching Quebec’s political, economic, and social issues worsen from Montreal hurt enough, it’s even harder to watch from a different country, let alone Geneva, the “Peace Capital” of the world.
However, as they always say, the grass is not always greener on the other side. On a referendum held on February 9th, a small margin of 50.4 percent of the Swiss population voted to place immigration caps in the country, sparking much heated debate throughout the nation and endangering Swiss relations with the European Union (EU). Even though Switzerland is not member of the EU, it still cooperates very closely with the Union and is part of Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone, which allows EU citizens unrestricted travel and working rights in Switzerland under this unrestricted regime.
As a way of punishing the Swiss for the imposition of immigration caps, the EU responded on February 26th by suspending Erasmus participation for Swiss students in 2014. Erasmus is the EU’s exchange program that allows European students to study abroad in other European countries.
Announcements for student protests at the Université de Genève were posted all over Facebook and students marched around the city against the country’s immigration reform.
All of a sudden, I felt like I was back in Montreal. With the anti-government policy protests and many allegations of the Swiss immigration vote declared as racist and discriminatory, it felt too much like the PQ and the backlash on the Charter of Values. As discussions over the referendum continue and the Quebec elections roll around, I have realized that there are things you can’t run from. Everywhere we go there wtill be protests, referendums, and opposition. No, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Whatever side we find ourselves on, all we can do is work to make it as green as we possibly can.
Sources:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/09/swiss-referendum-immigratio…
Photos obtained from:http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/09/swiss-referendum-immigratio…