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Abstract.  This article examines why the electorate in German‐speaking Switzerland has consistently opposed joining the European Union. It first shows that the region scores highly on a range of general correlates of negative attitudes towards European integration. However, this is compounded by more idiosyncratic factors, above all by the German‐speaking Swiss' peculiar political and cultural position. On the one hand, as Swiss they belong to a state that lacks a single national culture, is defined in civic and institutional rather than cultural terms, and therefore appears more vulnerable in the face of the European Union's own civic and institutional ambitions. On the other hand, as Swiss‐Germans, they belong to a cultural and linguistic region whose cultural boundaries are relatively fragile and lack institutional backup and articulation. Caught in this identitive double bind, the Swiss‐German electorate has developed an underlying sense of vulnerability and a desire to limit exposure to the outside world.

Abstract
This article examines Muslim interpretations in the mass media public discourses in German-speaking Switzerland. It focuses on the period from the moment of the adoption of the initiative against the construction of minarets untill mid-2017. On the basis of a discourse analysis four fields of positions are presented. It can be shown that there is a considerable variety of inter-Muslim interpretations. Those positions with the highest reception are characterized by an intolerance of ambiguity and an incorporation of hegemonial interpretative patterns.

In this study, I provide evidence that the educational achievement of second-generation immigrants in German-speaking Switzerland is greater than in Germany. The impact of the first-generation immigrants' destination decision on their offspring's educational achievement seems to be much more important than has been recognized by the existing literature. I identify the test score gap between these students that cannot be explained by differences in individual and family characteristics. Moreover, I show how this gap evolves over the test score distribution and how the least favorably-endowed students fare. My results suggest that the educational system of Switzerland, relative to the German system, enhances the performance of immigrants' children substantially. This disparity is largest when conditioning on the language spoken at home, and prevails even when comparing only students whose parents migrated from the same country of origin.

This article presents part of the findings that came out of a two-year research conducted within the frame of a FKFO project.1The purpose of this project was to show how the study of the evolving language policies of public service broadcasting (PSB),2can give a good insight into the (self-) ascribed role of PSB in the nation-building project and wider identity formation within communities. In other words, it showed how the evolving language policies of PSB can be explained by looking at their wider socioeconomic, political, cultural and sociolinguistic context.3The study was comparative in the sense that the language policy of the Flemish, German-Swiss and Dutch PSB were taken as case studies. As we show, their seemingly different language policies must be understood as the result of different `accents' in the process of nation-building and in the position of language in this process. The study was also diachronic. Throughout time, the PSB services have modified their language policies considerably. These changes must be understood as a symptom of sociocultural transformations and consequent changes in identity formation within these communities. As such, the language policies of PSB can be situated within the shift from a modern to a postmodern or postmaterialist society.

Ergebnisse eines über zwei Jahre laufenden Forschungsprojektes, das von der belgischen FKFO-Stiftung gefördert wurde. Das Ziel des Projektes war zu zeigen, daß eine Untersuchung der Sprachenpolitik des öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunks (PSB) wichtige Einsichten in das Selbstverständnis von PSB als einer Institution, die nationales Bewußtsein fördern und zur Identitätsbildung auf Gemeindeebene beitragen will, liefern kann. Mit anderen Worten, die Sprachenpolitik von PSB muß im weiteren im sozioökonomischen, politischen, kulturellen und soziolinguistischen Kontext gesehen werden. Es handelt sich um eine vergleichende Untersuchung in dem Sinne, daß die Sprachenpolitik des flämischen, deutsch-schweizerischen und holländischen PSB jeweils als Fallstudien einbezogen wurden. Es kann dabei gezeigt werden, daß die scheinbar unterschiedlichen Ansätze das Resultat unterschiedlicher "Akzente" beim Prozeß der Herstellung eines nationalen Bewußtseins und der Rolle, die Sprache in diesem Prozeß zu spielen hat, sind. Die Untersuchung erstreckte sich über unterschiedliche Zeitabschnitte. Über den gesamten Zeitraum hinweg läßt sich feststellen, daß die Sprachenpolitiken der öffentlich- rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten beträchtliche Modifikationen erfahren. Diese Veränderungen müssen als Symptome soziokultureller Transformationsprozesse und daraus folgender Änderungen bei der Identitätsbildung innerhalb dieser Gemeinschaften verstanden werden. Insgesamt kann festgestellt werden, daß sich in der Sprachenpolitik der untersuchten öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten die Entwicklung der modernen Gesellschaft hin zu einer postmodernen bzw. postmaterialistischen Gesellschaft widerspiegelt. (UNübers.)

Although a decline of trust in the news media can be observed in many countries, in international comparison, Switzerland is still considered one of the countries with a relatively high level of media trust. Nevertheless, knowledge concerning the factors that promote and hinder media trust in Switzerland is still limited. Building on the research on media trust and media scepticism, this study investigates the effects of political orientation, political disenchantment, populist attitudes, and news exposure on media trust. The study uses survey data (N = 1 019, 50% females, 50% males) on the Internet-using population of the German-speaking part of Switzerland, collected in June 2017. Examining media trust by assessing the characteristics of media coverage, two dimensions of trust were revealed: (1) trust in journalistic quality and (2) trust in the independence and impartiality of media coverage about political issues. Overall, the results demonstrate that the level of trust concerning these two dimensions is rather low, whereas the level of trust in journalistic quality is slightly higher than trust in the independence and impartiality of media coverage on political issues. Regarding possible explanations, the findings show that political disenchantment and populist attitudes, anti-establishment attitudes, and demand for people's sovereignty are negatively related to media trust, while belief in the homogeneity of the people is positively related. Moreover, the results reveal that exposure to news via public television in Switzerland is positively associated with trust in journalistic quality, while the use of special news websites is negatively associated with both dimensions of trust. The implications for future research on media trust are discussed.

Although a decline of trust in the news media can be observed in many countries, in international comparison, Switzerland is still considered one of the countries with a relatively high level of media trust. Nevertheless, knowledge concerning the factors that promote and hinder media trust in Switzerland is still limited. Building on the research on media trust and media scepticism, this study investigates the effects of political orientation, political disenchantment, populist attitudes, and news exposure on media trust. The study uses survey data (N = 1 019, 50% females, 50% males) on the Internet-using population of the German-speaking part of Switzerland, collected in June 2017. Examining media trust by assessing the characteristics of media coverage, two dimensions of trust were revealed: (1) trust in journalistic quality and (2) trust in the independence and impartiality of media coverage about political issues. Overall, the results demonstrate that the level of trust concerning these two dimensions is rather low, whereas the level of trust in journalistic quality is slightly higher than trust in the independence and impartiality of media coverage on political issues. Regarding possible explanations, the findings show that political disenchantment and populist attitudes, anti-establishment attitudes, and demand for people's sovereignty are negatively related to media trust, while belief in the homogeneity of the people is positively related. Moreover, the results reveal that exposure to news via public television in Switzerland is positively associated with trust in journalistic quality, while the use of special news websites is negatively associated with both dimensions of trust. The implications for future research on media trust are discussed.

AbstractThe extent to which the many Albanian-speaking children and adolescents in Switzerland apply a bilingual mode differs considerably. As part of a larger project, a quantitative exploratory study seeks to understand whether the frequency of code-switching is determined by demographic, individual, and peer-group-related factors. The fact that no striking relationships between these factors can be observed will be discussed with a view to the specificity of Albanian migration. Furthermore, these results raise questions with regard to the determinants of bilingual practice and the characteristics of "prototypical code-switch-speakers."

The aim of this paper is to explain ethnic differences in the transition from school to vocational education and training (VET) in German-speaking Switzerland. I examine the impact of application behavior and resource endowment on access to VET and the number of applications submitted. Even after controlling for differences in resource endowment, I find clear ethnic penalties in success rates and the number of applications submitted between natives and minority students. Once I introduce different application behavior in my models, ethnic differences in success rates either diminish sharply or even vanish. However, substantial ethnic penalties remain in the number of applications submitted. There are therefore indications of discrimination in the application process on the Swiss–German VET market.



The data sets for the replication of this study can be downloaded from the following address:
https://forsbase.unil.ch/datasets/dataset-public-detail/16347/1863/



Data set version 3.0.0

DAB-Panelstudie (DAB): W1 - W7 [Dataset]. Universität Bern, Institut für Erziehungswissenschaft, Abteilung Bildungssoziologie. Distributed by FORS, Lausanne. https://doi.org/10.23662/FORS-DS-946-4

Abstract
Using data collected with a factorial survey experiment in Norway and Switzerland, we analyze how employers react to unemployment spells when screening job applications. Our focus is on whether unemployment scarring varies depending on the applicants' level of education and the duration and timing of the unemployment spell. We find unemployment scars of similar size in the two countries. Interestingly, education moderates the strength of unemployment scarring: in the Swiss context, graduates from vocational education and training (VET) programs are the most severely affected by unemployment, even years after regaining employment; this is not the case in Norway. We contribute to the unemployment scarring literature and to comparative scholarship on school-to-work transitions by exposing a trade-off of dual VET systems, which are known to provide a safety net from unemployment. Our findings show that these same systems can cause scars that are particularly long-lasting to VET graduates who fall into unemployment.