Swiss-born Albanian, student rejected Swiss passports for a strange reason

After last year's world-wide headlines, that of rejection for the banal causes of Swiss citizenship of a Turkish youth in Canton Aargau, we now have the similar case of an Albanian.

Morrim Ahmeti, 22, who was born from Kosovo but who was born and raised in Switzerland, has been rejected by the competent office for naturalisation with the argument that: he did not know the names of 2 of the 3 local cafes where he lives, Montlingen of Canton St. Gallen, write 20 minutes.ch.

Exile, or Swiss, is not surprising. He, after working a while, has decided to attend studies at the Professional High School for Enterprise Economy, broadcast albinfo.ch. His cv is also completely clean: there is no record in criminal records, nor in the tax or migration office. Not even a traffic ticket.

What is the reason, then, that the Montlingen Village Naturalisation Council has rejected his request? The council's decision states: “integration in the village is weak. He engages too little to integrate completely into the village, for example, he does not know restaurants in Montlingen, even though he has grown up in this village. Various restaurants are located in the center of the village and on the road to the” school.

“It's like a punch in the face”, Ahmeti says, expressing his disagreement with this decision as he considers it integrated and lives 22 years in this municipality, broadcasts albinfo.ch. Although acknowledging that at the moment of questioning only one of the restaurants has been reminded, he says that this cannot be taken as a basis for someone to be denied Swiss passports.

The Council for Naturalisation has also made remarks that the Exile is not part of either of the village's sports or cultural associations. Meanwhile, he says that the football club has been active as a youth but has already abandoned it because of commitments at the workplace, which was outside the village, sends albinfo.ch. The Council for Naturalisation has specifically requested reason to reject my Swiss passport”, Ahmeti is convinced.

On the other hand, the chairman of Montlingen's Council for Naturalisation, who is also mayor of the municipality, Oberriet, including Montlingen, Rolf Hüber, does not want to be declared in detail regarding the case. He says it's a running procedure. But the non-recognition of village cafes is not the determining criterion for naturalisation procedure, broadcasts albinfo.ch. This is about one of many questions that the petitioner has been forced to respond to and on their basis we make the decision whether someone is integrated or not”.

For xenophobic, hatred of foreigners is by no means the word, says Haber. But, according to him, the naturalisation council has “a clear line” for some preconditions that must be met. “

For Ahmeti this is the second time of refusing to apply for the Swiss passport. The first time, years ago, his family had applied for naturalization. But this was rejected because his mother, as the only one in the family, did not speak German well. A request had also been denied to his older sister, who was at the time of her adulthood.

Exile Ahmeti has filed complaints against the Montlingen Natural Council's decision. The Ancesa has even received a letter of reference from his employer, conveys albinfo.ch. It writes that he has received with great concern the announcement of the Swiss passport's refusal and that Ahmeti has shown “excellent results” and proved very good career prospects.