On Friday I took part in a debate asking does Geneva do enough for anglophone expats in the city. I was part of the panel at the 5th birthday of an online directory for English speakers in Geneva: Angloinfo. The debate was based on an article that appeared in the Economist in March, about an investment banker who had to move his business back to London because his employees weren't happy and basically couldn't find entertainment in the city. I was defending the motion that Geneva does not do enough, which in the end, in front of an audience of expats of many years standing, who were proof for the arguments against the motion, we lost emphatically. The debate however, was good fun.
Personally I disagree with the motion in principle. My view is that if you are going to move to a foreign city you should make the effort to fit in, learn a bit of the language, get involved in what's going on etc. etc. The main issue of the motion, in my view, was how easy is this to do? In front of a group of people who have been in the city for around 10 years on average, it was going to be hard to win sympathy for the view that finding things to do in the city wasn't easy.
I tried to make the point that it isn't just a one way street. You can't blame anglophone expats entirely for finding it difficult to fit into the culture. And you can't excuse Geneva for not making the effort to welcome foreign workers because other places may have been less than welcoming in the past.
Anglophone expats, whether American, Australian, British, from the sub-continent or anywhere where English is the second language rather than French, come to Switzerland to work and do business. Geneva benefits hugely in taxes paid by these employees, and money spent by them in the city, which goes to generate jobs that pay taxes also. So do they really have time to devote to getting to know the city.
Geneva politicians complain about international companies in the city and the low taxes they pay. By extension they are complaining about the companies' employees - anglophone expats coming over here, bring jobs, paying for the state! Many of them are here as migrant workers, so like migrant workers the world over they aren't overly interested in trying to integrate into their host society.
As little as expats do to try and fit in, the city shows itself to be more unwilling to let them fit in. It takes 8 years for an alien in Switzerland to gain the right to vote - so by and large only the Swiss have a say in the municipality. Across Europe, an EU citizen, whatever country the come from, can vote in elections of the city they live in, which surely must have an effect on the way the city is run. Earlier this year the citizens of Geneva voted against a proposal to extend shop opening hours and allow Sunday trading. This means that no supermarkets, and only a few cornershops, are open after 7pm on a week day, 6pm on a Satruday or at all on Sundays.
Because the supermarkets have such limited hours the only time as a parent I can go to the supermarket to shop, is on a Saturday, and I have to take my kids. It annoys me that the city thinks it's ok to steal away a big chunk of what little time I have to spend with my kids. And because much of the city is closed along with the supermarkets on Sunday, some of the things you could have done whilst you were supermarket shopping, you can't do, because they are closed as well!
Some one made a value judgement between noisy 24 hour cities such as London or Paris and quiet, gentle, Geneva. But at least in a 24 hour city, if you want to live a 24 hour life, you can. If you don't want to live a 24 hour life, you can do that too. You can shut your doors on a Sunday, or a Friday or whatever day suits you. Unlike in Geneva when everyone shuts their door on a Sunday, and then chooses another random day to close their doors, just to annoy you. This isn't a welcoming culture. A city's culture is about accommodating differences, but perhaps the city needs to be of a certain size to be able to accommodate any culture. Because it seems that Geneva is pretty good at welcoming other cultures, but for aliens who don't have the time to get to know the city, because they are only here temporarily, I don't think it's big enough to provide a sufficiently wide array of distractions to pass as welcoming.
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