Mirza Khan has come to Basel via Italy. His request for asylum in Switzerland was denied. Not safe but you can survive there. His family might be active in politics and might fight for the separatist cause of the Kashmiris, but since this conflict is as old as most of us, we don’t hear about it […]
On 26 May 2016, Frédéric Docquier, Professor of Economics at the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium, gave an NCCR conference on “Income disparities, population and migration flow over the 21st century.” Without minimizing the importance of the current refugee crisis, his analysis adopts a longer-term perspective and focuses on the structural forces that affected past […]
It was a sunny afternoon in May and I was on my way to ‘On the Road with Migrants’, a SIETAR event, where people would be asked to imagine what it feels like to be an asylum seeker or refugee. I was walking quickly towards the Allegra Sprachschule, conveniently located at Löwenstrasse 51, just a […]
Wie stellen sich Unternehmen in der Schweiz auf Mitarbeiter ein, die muslimisch religiös wie kulturell geprägt sind? Multinationale Unternehmen beschäftigen sich schon länger mit Diversity und haben in der Regel eine sog. “inklusive” Kultur (Diversity and inclusion). Das bedeutet, dass alle Menschen unabhängig von ihrer religiösen oder kulturellen Herkunft die gleichen Chancen im Unternehmen haben. […]
Dr. Betty Goguikian Ratcliff is the head of the Intercultural and Interpersonal Clinical Psychology Unit at the University of Geneva. She has been working with the migrant population for twenty years, after her studies of psychopathology and mental health of migrants. Migrant wellbeing is a topic close to her heart not only for professional reasons. Born […]
A few months ago, I got a call from my friend Susan. Susan has been the headmistress of a large school in a popular suburb of Bern for over 15 years. “You deal with all things intercultural – so help me out here,” was her opening statement. The story was about a 14-year-old student from an […]
I met Achmet 3 years ago in Greece. Nineteen years old, charming and with an excellent command of the Greek language, he took care of horses. He left his home in Northern Pakistan at the age of 14 in search of a better life. After three months of adventurous travel through Afghanistan, Iran, Northern Iraq, […]
When I ask Zarah for her name, we instantly connect. “Can we help you, Madam?” I have to laugh. She laughs with me. Zarah is a young refugee offering to help me bring an IKEA bag with men’s shoes into the distribution center. She is wearing a top that indicates that she likes to go […]
Living in Switzerland for 8.5 years now, I would like to take this particular opportunity to write about something quite interesting and astonishing: the “Röstigraben”. As you might know, there are 4 main languages spoken in Switzerland and the so-called “Röstigraben”, which is a rather informal term, actually defines the divide between the Swiss German speakers […]
Immersion and consequent cultural integration for our children seems simple: we move abroad and our children can embrace our ‘living abroad project’ by attending a local school and guess what, they will become fluent in a new language, which brings them unique skills and status compared with most kids back home. They are likely to […]
