The difficult path to Swiss citizenship is getting more selective: well-educated and well-off immigrants are pulling ahead when it comes to getting a passport, a study shows. Unless you’ve married a Swiss or have a Swiss parent, becoming a citizen of the Alpine nation can be a rigmarole. For adults, there’s the minimum residency period of ten years. There’s the sometimes high costs. And then there’s the obscure test questions (which is bigger: Lake Neuchâtel, Lake Lucerne, or Lake Zurich?) and the unpredictable reasons you could be refused, such as mowing your lawn on public holidays (though some of the more questionable objections have been nullified by courts). And after a 2018 overhaul of the rules it’s not getting easier – or at least not for everyone, according to a study by the Federal Commission on Migration (FCM), a government advisory body. Between 2018 and 2020, the study says, the proportion of university graduates among “ordinary naturalisations” climbed to 57% ...
