ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Samuel D. Schmid

Samuel D. Schmid is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Department of Political Science at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland. He holds a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and specializes in the comparative analysis of immigration, integration, and citizenship policies and politics.
ORCiD >>

POSTS BY Samuel D. Schmid

02 June 2023

Samuel D. Schmid

Democratizing Switzerland

About 25% of Switzerland’s permanent population do not possess the red passport necessary to vote due to one of the most restrictive citizenship law’s in the Western world. The Democracy Initiative is trying to change this. While unlikely to succeed, they are nonetheless starting an important conversation about how to fix Switzerland’s semi-democracy. Continue reading >>

06 December 2022

Samuel D. Schmid

Upgrading German Citizenship

As part of their broader agenda to “modernize” its immigration laws, Germany’s government has proposed to ease immigrants’ access to citizenship. The opposition – especially the CDU – as well as the liberal government coalition partner FDP are not happy with this. Among other things, they are concerned that the new law would seriously diminish the value of German citizenship and insist that immigrants should successfully integrate before they become German nationals. I argue in the following that these concerns, and further claims, are unfounded. Continue reading >>