Finding it difficult, without the assistance of the federal
government, to draw up a report on this subject, the laws
concerning which appear to vary in different cantons,
[Page 1437]
I addressed a note
to the president requesting him to obtain for me, from the
various cantonal governments, replies to the following
questions, which I thought calculated to procure the information
required by the naturalization commission:
In reply I have received a communication from the president, copy
of which I have the honor herewith to inclose, together with the
printed work therein referred to, drawn up by the federal
chancery on the cantonal regulations for acquiring the right of
citizenship.
The Lord Stanley, M. P., &c.
In the note which the minister of Her Britannic Majesty
addressed to the federal council on the 19th instant, his
excellency expressed the desire to obtain various
information upon the condition of Swiss legislation
respecting the nationality of children born of foreign
parents upon Swiss territory, which information was divided
under the following heads:
1st. What is necessary that a person may be considered as a
Swiss citizen according to the laws of the cfifferent Swiss
cantons?
In order to become a Swiss citizen it is necessary that a
person shall acquire the right of citizenship in a canton or
a commune. No special right of Swiss citizenship exists. The
right of communal citizenship takes the precedence and is
acquired by descent, gift, or the payment of purchase-money,
the amount of which varies according to the state of the
commune’s resources, and is always subject to the
legislation of the canton.
After the acquisition of the citizenship of the commune,
naturalization is conferred in the respective canton either
by the government or legislative authority, for which
naturalization the payment of a further sum as special
purchase-money is required. Without naturalization the
incorporation into a commune has no effect. So far as
concerns naturalization of foreigners, the federal law only
contains the provision of article 43 of the federal
constitution, by virtue of which foreigners cannot be
naturalized in a canton until they are freed from every tie
toward the state to which they belong. The particulars of
the legislation of the cantons are to be found in a
collection of provisions relative to the subject, enacted by
each canton, published in 1862 by the federal chancery, of
which a copy is inclosed. If any changes have been made in
those provisions, they relate, in each instance, to the form
rather than the substance.
2. If citizenship can be lost, in what manner is it lost?
The right of Swiss citizenship ceases only with death, or by
the voluntary renunciation, by the person who possesses it,
of his cantonal and communal right of citizenship and by the
release which the competent authority of the canton gives
him. But this emancipation from the ties which bind him to
the state is not granted until the proof exists in due form
of the acquisition of citizenship in a foreign country. The
legitimate children of an absent Swiss always acquire their
right of citizenship from their father, and illegitimate
children from their mother, provided that no other formality
is necessary than the proof of descent. Swiss nationality is
not lost by long absence, &c., as, in accordance with
the provision of the same article 43 of the federal
constitution, no canton can deprive any person leaving it
from his right of origin or citizenship.
3. Are the children born in a canton of foreign parents
considered in accordance with the laws as Swiss citizens?
- a.
- De facto, by the mere fact of the birth of these
children on Swiss soil. In the contrary case:
- b.
- How long must the parents have resided in
Switzerland before the birth of the child, or what
other circumstances, independently of the birth of
the child on Swiss soil, are necessary in order that
the children should be considered as Swiss
citizens?
- c.
- Must the children he expected to declare their
choice of Swiss citizenship by a formal act on reaching their
majority?
What gives ground for the supposition of a presumptive choice
on their part of the right of citizenship?
In replying to this question and its three subdivisions, the
federal council has the honor to observe that the principles
just stated suffer no kind of exception; especially not in
favor of foreigners born in Switzerland, even if they and
their parents have been domiciled in Switzerland for a very
long time. In this respect Switzerland maintains purely and
simply the same principle that she recognizes for the
children of her own citizens, viz, legitimate children
follow the condition of their father, and illegitimate the
condition of their mother.
Hoping that this information may be of some use to the
naturalization commission, for which it has been requested,
the federal council avails itself of this fresh occasion to
renew to his excellency Mr. Saville Lumley the assurances of
its high consideration.
On behalf of the federal council the president of the
confederation,
The chancellor of the confederation,
