Only very few incidents of racism in the canton reported

It is pleasing to report that, over the course of 2017, there were very few cases of racism reported to the cantonal authorities. This is despite an increase in such cases, up by 102 to 301, in Switzerland as a whole.

To find out more about the situation here, a journalist of the Zuger Zeitung went along to interview Vit Stirsky (photograph), who heads the Cantonal Integration Advisory Centre.

When he was asked about incidents of racism in the canton of Zug last year, the 45-year-old political scientist said that every year the centre gets between two and six questions relating to discrimination issues, “too few to be able to deduce any trend,” he said. “Hence we cannot really talk of an increase here.”

He went on to explain that, for the most part, such questions emanated from enquiries from various offices and authorities which wanted to ensure that, for example, various decisions, formulations or a particular procedure, were not discriminatory in any way. In some cases they were asking on behalf of a client, too. “Last year we had only two enquiries, though it should be mentioned, too, that we only set up advising on these matters three years ago.”

Stirsky went on to explain that much of the centre’s work related to prevention, with their information brochures distributed to various offices, schools and advisory centres. “We also want to make people aware of what forms racism can take, and indeed we hold workshops on this matter. What is more, we have twice participated in the “Living Library” event, and this attracted much interest, helping people to overcome any prejudices they have.”

As to what precisely was regarded as an act of racism, Stirsky explained that it was any person or group of persons who expressed hatred or discrimination of persons on account of their race, ethnicity or religion; those who, through the spoken or written word, through image, depiction, gesture or actions or in any other way demeaned or discriminated against a person on account of race, religion or ethnicity in a way which infringed their human dignity or incited others to do so.

The journalist then asked for Stirsky to comment on some extreme cases mentioned in the national report which included a bus driver refusing asylum-seekers to get on a bus and of incidents of discrimination at schools
“It is probable that only such extreme incidents in the whole of Switzerland were chosen as examples for the report,” he replied. “We have had no such incidents of bus drivers behaving in such a way here in Zug. In any case, it is in such incidents that the victims would be highly likely themselves to press charges and take up the matter with the police. Might I add we have had no incidents of discrimination report in schools in Zug, either. I assume teaching staff and those involved in social work know about the information we provide.”

Regular readers may, however, recall the report of an appeal hearing published only in February of this year relating to an incident in which a 26-year-old Croat and a 27-year-old Swiss man insulted a group of Eritrean asylum seekers outside Zug station by using the “n” word and were subsequently convicted of causing grievous bodily harm, though this referred to an incident in December 2014.

At the other end of the scale, it was only reported more recently how an employee of the Zug Cantonal Office of Guardianship for Children and Adults, Esther Opoku, who has Ghanaian roots, felt that her skin colour had a positive advantage in her ability to advise under-age asylum-seekers as she felt they were able to relate to her better.