In Argentina, a vast movement to demand the Swiss passport

Dylan Kunz is 23 years old. He is a descendant of Swiss emigrants. Leaving the cantons of Solothurn and Thurgau, his great-grandparents arrived in Argentina in the 19^e century. His grandparents had Swiss nationality, as did four of his five uncles. Which is not his case nor that of his father Ruben. A question of missed deadlines.

The family was stunned in 2021 when Ruben, 63, contacted the Swiss embassy in Buenos Aires by email, which informed him that he was not a Swiss citizen. “A huge disappointment in the family, and particularly for my father, who had believed all his life that he was.”

Regrettable news also from the son’s point of view. “My father and I always said: ‘Switzerland is the best country in the world and we are Swiss’.”

A birth never registered at the embassy

The Kunz family always believed that Ruben, just like his older siblings, was announced to the Swiss embassy after his birth. At the time, in 1958, email did not exist and the Argentine post office still worked partially with horses. Its reliability was not perfect. The joint announcement of the birth of Dylan’s father and his brother apparently never reached the embassy, ​​the family laments.

Dylan Kunz feels Swiss. The fact of not having inherited Swiss nationality is difficult for him.

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However, the law is clear. If a person has not been notified to the Swiss representation nor registered in the Swiss civil status register before the age of twenty-five (twenty-two in 1958), he or she loses Swiss nationality. It happened to Ruben Kunz in 1980.

In theory, he could still have filed a request for reinstatement within ten years. But not knowing he was at odds, he missed this chance. There remains this last solution: to be reinstated as Swiss nationality by coming to live in Switzerland permanently for three years. Very hypothetical. “For many of us who live in Argentina, it is not only impossible financially, it would also be difficult to be able to work in Switzerland from the point of view of the right of residence,” explains his son Dylan.

When the channel is interrupted

Clearly, Dylan’s father is deprived of a Swiss passport just like his son and his descendants. “We are dealing with a chain dependency,” explains civil rights expert Barbara von Rütte. Once the chain is interrupted, it is difficult to request reinstatement of one’s nationality, although “the closer one is to the loss, the more likely one is to recover it.”

Like Ruben and Dylan Kunz, hundreds of descendants of emigrants have had to face this shock in recent decades. “Swiss nationality law is strongly influenced by the principle of ius Sanguinis,” explains Barbara von Rütte. Citizenship is transmitted by paternal or maternal descent, place of birth playing no role. “The law provides that by means of registration, Swiss citizenship can be transmitted over generations.”

>>> Reread: our article on the children of Swiss women abroad who cannot obtain nationality:

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From now on, a significant number of descendants of emigrants consider the conditions for transmitting nationality too strict. A collective around Dylan Kunz launched a petition signed by 110 Swiss abroad and 11,500 descendants of Swiss emigrants. The text has been on Parliament’s desk since July 2024.

“We, the descendants, are discriminated against”

“We ask the Federal Assembly to review and reform Swiss nationality law so that the descendants of Swiss abroad, including those of the 5^e generation, can acquire nationality more easily. This reform must include a simplification of procedures and a reduction in bureaucratic requirements,” indicates the text. Swiss nationality law discriminates against descendants of Swiss abroad by imposing specific restrictions on the retention of nationality, the petitioners continue.

“Switzerland, until the beginning of the 20^e century, was a country of emigration,” recalls Barbara von Rütte. This is why many Swiss abroad have lived around the world for five or six generations. And for various reasons, many have lost their nationality, according to the expert. And many also could have preserved and passed on it.

The question is whether it is really so complicated to register with an embassy or consulate before the age of twenty-five… “The problem is not today but the past” , retorts Eduardo Puibusque, who filed the petition on behalf of the collective “Nacionalidad Suiza Para Descendientes”. Communications and information travel quickly these days, he notes, but it wasn’t always this way.

The “Nacionalidad Suiza Para Descendientes” movement has thousands of supporters in South America.

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Many have lost it through ignorance

“We must remember that most Swiss emigrants did not live in the city but settled in the countryside.” Argentina is a huge country and the distances are gigantic, “even today, crossing the country remains difficult”. Ignorance due to lack of access to sources of information has led for years to the loss of Swiss nationality “and this, not only in rural regions”, assures Eduardo Puibusque. The various legislative changes over the decades have nothing to do with it either, he adds.

He too had to fight to regain his Swiss nationality. Her mother lost her when she married an Argentinian national in the 1940s.

>>> Until 1952, Swiss women who married a foreigner lost their nationality:

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Eduardo Puibusque was lucky. He was able to benefit from a transitional provision in Swiss nationality law which allowed him, like his sister, to recover their red passport with a white cross. However, his three children and six grandchildren do not have access to it. “When my status as a Swiss citizen was finally recognized, my three children had already exceeded the age limit set arbitrarily,” he says. For many descendants of emigrants, regaining Swiss nationality is a real headache… Swiss.

The petition calls for this situation to be corrected: reintegration into nationality, including ideally for the fifth blood generation, of Swiss descendants abroad, must be made possible without obstacles.

“Previously, more transitional provisions applied which made it easier to regain Swiss nationality,” says Barbara von Rütte. They first concerned Swiss people who had lost their nationality due to discrimination based on sex. But given a certain vagueness concerning them, these provisions were reorganized in 2017. “This also with the idea that most situations should resolve themselves over time.”

However, this does not seem to be the case. “We are uncles, aunts, sons, daughters, grandchildren,” pleads Dylan Kunz, all of whom have lost Swiss nationality. “We are not looking to make any profit from reintegration, it is only about our identity and attachment to our homeland.”

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Translated from German by Pierre-François Besson/sj