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Rubrik: Mittwochs-Kolumnen |
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| 2 Rooms, Kitchen, Bathroom, only CH-Citizens | |
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Just recently I found a letter from the "Swiss Democrats" in my letter box. In bright yellow letters it yelled "Stop the De-Helvetication of Zurich!". It was an advertisement for the upcoming elections, and their political program is mainly against: against foreign infiltration, against "slumification", against crime, etc. Being a foreigner at ETH, one can read propaganda such as this quite calmly. We are not the prime targets of our democratic friends, considering that we are also promoting Switzerland's reputation as a first-class research location. And at ETH we do not have such problems. Have we not? At ETH, there are indeed few problems. One can note positively, that already some lectures are being held in english. And there are rumours, that the new Bachelor/Masters-courses will be held entirely in english. The tightrope walk between being a swiss university and an international research institution does require a lot of flair, and upto now it has been managed very well. Social contact is not such an issues either: the scientific esperanto english works nicely at an engineering university. There are even some that take care of newcomers, for example IAESTE, ERASMUS, or the AVETH International Students Web (www.aveth.ethz.ch/international/). However, one cannot live exclusively at ETH, especially considering that ETH does not have a campus with student housing. From India it is not exactly easy to find a place in one of Zurich's student houses or even a flat (the latter is, especially for foreigners, even difficult from Zurich!). But that is but the beginning: in spite of help such as Poly- and Survival Guides, and the leaflets from the Rektorat, one is left quite alone with problems such as permit, social insurance, pension, etc.
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It might be opposed that newcomers are grown-up persons who can take care of themselves. That is certainly right and necessary, for example by learning german. But, considering that not all are from neighbouring or even european countries and might have serious cultural and language problems, one can make their effort for themselves easier or harder. ETH wants to attract more (doctoral) students from abroad. The idea comes from an anglo-saxon background, it seems to be quite common there. New people bring new ideas. And an important part of research is the (international) exchange with others. The problem hereby is: there this idea works very nicely. The local natives speak english and very often one can find (maybe just preliminary) housing on campus... Being a foreigner in Zurich is something special: on the one hand Zurich is a cosmopolitic and very colourful city, offering plenty of opportunities. On the other hand, the language and housing situation are, apart from the "usual" administrative hassle, not always easy. ETH is not an american campus university. In order to attract smart people from all over the world, one cannot blindly copy their ideas. One has to make oneself actively attractive. That also includes reducing administrative, organisational and language barriers as far as possible. Equally important is that newcomers feel welcome here. This, however, we can achieve only all together. A first small step may be already this text in two languages.
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