Thousands Of Emigrants' Descendants In Argentina Demand Swiss Citizenship

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Swiss citizenship is meant to be passed down by descent, whether you are born in Switzerland or abroad. However, for thousands of descendants of Swiss emigrants, this right has slipped away. Now, a petition is pushing for change.

Holds a B.A. in cross-language communication and is a qualified PR professional. Worked as a journalist on the paper Aargauer Zeitung, and before then was personal assistant to the mayor of Bern.

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Dylan Kunz, 23, is the son of Swiss emigrants. His great-grandparents, hailing from cantons Solothurn and Thurgau, emigrated to Argentina in the 19th century. His grandparents were Swiss citizens, as are four of his five uncles. Yet, neither Dylan nor his father Ruben has a Swiss passport. Ruben unknowingly lost his Swiss citizenship as he missed all the crucial deadlines to retain it.

The family only discovered this in 2021, when Ruben, who was 63 at the time, emailed the Swiss embassy in Buenos Aires about his status. The embassy's response was a shock: he was no longer Swiss.

“It was a huge disappointment for the whole family, especially for my dad who spent his entire life believing he was Swiss,” says Dylan, who admits he was slightly embarrassed when he learnt his father had lost his Swiss citizenship.“My dad and I always told everyone that Switzerland was the best country in the world and that we were Swiss!”

The Kunz family had long believed that Ruben, like his older siblings, had been duly registered with the Swiss embassy in Buenos Aires. But Ruben was born in 1958, long before the advent of email, at a time when letters in Argentina were delivered by horse and cart – a system which was far from reliable. The disappointing conclusion the family made was that the Swiss authorities never received the notification of Dylan's father's birth, nor that of his brother.

Under Swiss law, any person who is not registered with the relevant Swiss representation abroad or listed in the Swiss civil registry by the age of 25 (in 1958, the age was 22) loses their Swiss citizenship. This was the case for Ruben in 1980, the year he turned 22.

In theory, Ruben could have applied for reinstatement of his Swiss citizenship within ten years, but he missed that deadline as well. After all, he believed he was still Swiss. Now, his only remaining option is to permanently live in Switzerland for three years – a prospect far from realistic.“For many of us who live in Argentina, it's not just financially impossible, it's also extremely difficult to obtain a work permit to earn money in Switzerland,” Dylan explains.

Not only is Dylan's father denied a Swiss passport, but Dylan and his future descendants are also excluded.“We have some kind of chain dependence here,” explains citizenship expert Barbara von Rütte. Once the chain is broken, it gets increasingly difficult to regain Swiss citizenship.“The closer you are to the point of losing it, the more likely you are to reclaim it.”

Ruben and Dylan Kunz are not alone in this. Over the past few decades, thousands of descendants of Swiss emigrants have faced the same situation.“Swiss citizenship is based on the principle of ius sanguinis,” says Rütte. In other words, citizenship is passed down by descent, regardless of where you were born.“Our law allows for Swiss citizenship to be passed on through generations, as long as the birth is registered.”

>>> Gender discrimination continues to this day:

This content was published on May 12, 2023 Some children of Swiss women abroad – but not of Swiss men – still have almost no chance of obtaining a Swiss passport. Why?

Many descendants of Swiss emigrants find these requirements too strict. In order to loosen things up, a group led by Dylan Kunz launched a petition gathering signatures from around 110 Swiss citizens living abroad as well as 11,500 descendants of Swiss emigrants. It was submitted to the Federal Assembly in July 2024.

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