Der Schwarzenbacheffekt

In 1970, the Schwarzenbach Initiative was only narrowly rejected. It was the prelude to a series of ‘foreign infiltration initiatives’ that continue to this day and have traumatised generations of people with a history of migration. In this book, contemporary witnesses of the Schwarzenbach Initiative talk about their lives in the provisional housing scheme. They talk about precarious living conditions, children left behind, discrimination and marginalisation, but also about friendship and resistance. Many of them were politicised by the initiative and moved to a commitment that still shapes social life in Switzerland today.

Edited and with an introduction by Francesca Falk. With the collaboration of students from the University of Bern. With a contribution on discourses on foreign infiltration by Cenk Akdoganbulut. Photographs by Michael Züger. Literary-biographical texts by Melinda Nadj Abonji and Jelica Popović add two younger voices to the portrayal of migrant experiences. In the epilogue, Fatima Moumouni deals with the current migration debate and racism in Switzerland.