The ski slopes are full – with Swiss families and well-off foreign tourists. Secondos are missing. From an economic perspective, they are a failed deal. One of the first to recognize this was the Arosa tourism director at the time, Pascal Jenny.
Ski instructor Michel and his students: a photo from Bönigen in February 1944.
Walter Studer / Photopress / Keystone
Slaven Dujakovic. This is the name of a formerly promising talent from the Austrian Ski Association. The Salzburg player has long since hung up his batons, and yet he is remembered: not because of his achievements, he never achieved his big breakthrough. But simply because he has a “different” name.
This is particularly true for the skiing nation of Switzerland. Almost 60 percent of children in this country now have a migrant background. In 2019, 56 percent of 7- to 15-year-olds lived in a household with at least one parent who was born abroad or has a foreign nationality.
In the alpine squad (national team up to C squad) of the Swiss Ski Association Swiss Ski, if you judge by the name, there is of course none of this. The 108 top athletes are called Mächler, Abplanalp, Roulin or of course Odermatt. You’ll look in vain for an -ic ending, and there’s also no Turkish, Portuguese or Spanish touch. A single name doesn’t sound typically (Swiss) German, French or Italian – Jack Spencer.
Gary Furrer, who was head of mass sports at Swiss Ski for 13 years and recently retired, says: “It was always my hope that when I left there would be a foreign-sounding name among the elite skiers. Unfortunately it was not fulfilled.”
The Alps, the redoubt of “primitive” Switzerland
However, the finding is not limited to top athletes. Naturally, the mountain railways do not record any figures about the possible migration background of their clientele, and the definition of secondos or terzos is the only thing that can be disputed. The name does not necessarily say anything about the origins of the parents.
Nevertheless, in every ski hut and at every ski lift, the impression you get when looking at the list of names of the national teams is confirmed. The majority of people who go to the slopes are representatives of “original” Switzerland. It feels as if Switzerland is stuck in the 1950s, at least in this respect.
Skiing, this Swiss sanctuary, is therefore not a reflection of a country in which, according to the Federal Statistical Office, around 40 percent of the population has a migrant background. Anyone traveling on the slopes gets the impression that almost the only immigrants on the slopes are expats from Nordic countries.
In other sports, especially football, which is almost completely globalized, the picture looks completely different. In recent decades it has become a matter of course that the national team goes to major tournaments. Without the contribution of numerous secondos, this success would have been unthinkable.
Kubilay Türkyilmaz, Granit Xhaka and Breel Embolo show on the pitch that Switzerland is simply no longer imaginable without immigrants. Thanks to the opportunities for social advancement and the often unbridled passion for football in their countries of origin, the children of immigrants are overrepresented at the top compared to the rest of the population.
From time to time, discussions about the “real” and the “paperwizards” flare up. But overall, the national football team is seen as proof of the comparatively successful integration of immigrants. They are proud of the national team’s successes and are just as happy about a goal from Zeki Amdouni as one from Silvan Widmer.
In the past, every descent had to be earned through an arduous ascent with skins under the skis or in a “bone-step”.
Emanuel Gyger & Arnold Klopfenstein / Müller-Jentsch Collection
Football stars in the snow
Why not bring footballers into the snow and specifically advertise it in the Balkan community? thought Pascal Jenny. Because from an economic point of view, the missing Secondos are a deal that didn’t come to fruition. In 2014, as Arosa’s tourism director at the time, Jenny invited Xherdan Shaqiri and his brothers and made a bet with him: If the football star liked it in the snow, he would become a brand ambassador for the Graubünden destination for three years. If he is disappointed, Jenny will pay him for a week’s beach vacation.
Of course the Shaqiris liked it in the snow. Xherdan wasn’t allowed to ski for contractual reasons, but the photos of him on the sled, with the snowshoes and having a fondue chat made the rounds. The influencer wrote on Facebook: “Can you imagine that I swapped playing football for snow sports? I didn’t think I would enjoy it myself.”
Shaqiri still regularly has fun in the snow in Arosa, but his ambassadorial contract has long since expired. Was the investment worth it for the destination? “The Balkan countries do not appear in our accommodation statistics, in which the countries of origin are listed from a share of two percent upwards,” says Jenny, who is now President of Arosa Tourism.
He is not allowed to ski for contractual reasons: Xherdan Shaqiri sledding.
Arosa / Switzerland Tourism
However, naturalized secondos would not figure in these statistics anyway, and Jenny also says that, in his opinion, there are now “a few more guests” with roots in the Balkans. Marketing stands are also specifically present at events organized by Swissalbs, the Swiss-Albanian community.
Lack of tradition
But why, despite such actions, does skiing (and a few other traditional Swiss sports) not show the diversity of the country at all? Edgar Grämiger from the consulting firm Grischconsulta looked into the question in 2016 on behalf of cable cars, three mountain cantons and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. Some of the answers he found are obvious.
Skiing is usually learned in childhood – it’s difficult to get started later on. However, if parents cannot drive, an important driving force is missing. Although not all of the “primitive” Swiss are waving down the slope, there are a lot more of them. If you already have skis lying around at home, the barriers to entry are reduced.
According to a 2008 study on the sports behavior of the migrant population, one in four men from Northern and Western Europe skis in Switzerland, but only one in 40 from the Balkans, Turkey or Eastern Europe. These country groups represent a significant proportion of immigrants. In no other sport are the differences in skill between the population with and without a migrant background as great as in skiing.
Virtuoso skiing technique knows no age: a jump in an untouched snowy landscape.
Emanuel Gyger & Arnold Klopfenstein / Müller-Jentsch Collection
There are also financial factors: snow sports are expensive fun – and all surveys show that migrants have significantly lower income and assets. This will also be shared with more people. Anyone who has to make ends meet at the end of the month will only rarely be able to afford a day of skiing, which easily costs over a hundred francs per person. Accompanying the talented daughter to all sorts of junior races – which quickly costs a five-figure sum every year – is certainly not an option.
The majority of migrant Switzerland lives in urban areas and rarely in mountain villages, where you just have to fall over to get to the next ski slope. Last but not least, there are fewer and fewer areas with guaranteed snow, and the leisure alternatives are significantly more numerous than they were a few decades ago – which of course applies to all sections of the population. The ski week now competes with Disneyland, the floorball camp or the diving holidays in Hurghada.
Individualistic Swiss
Cultural aspects are more surprising for the affinity for snow sports. The Dutch social psychologist Geert Hofstede established six so-called cultural dimensions in his work – such as the index of power distance, individualism or enjoyment.
It turns out that individualism is much more pronounced in Switzerland (and in other Western European cultures) than in the Balkans or Turkey, for example. People from the latter countries are more likely to look for experiences within a group or family than solitude or togetherness on the ski slopes or at the T-bar lift. This is exemplified in sports: despite their manageable size, some Balkan countries are among the world‘s best in football, basketball, handball and water polo – these are all team sports.
The Swiss also top the list when it comes to the enjoyment index – which, among other things, measures how enjoyable leisure activities are. A Swiss family feels very lucky to be able to spend a day in the mountains. This type of pastime is probably less appealing to immigrant neighbors. Long-lasting prestige objects, such as a beautiful car, are often more valued.
“A Turkish acquaintance told me that it wouldn’t occur to him to spend money on something that you wouldn’t have left over,” says Grämiger.
The teachers can no longer ski either
If you want to reach the majority of the population with a migrant background, such individual events are naturally not enough. Access via primary schools is more promising. One day of skiing every winter was once a given in almost every community. As the teachers themselves became less and less familiar with how to handle the two poles, it became a “snow day”. From then on, the children could also get on the sleigh or on the ice skates.
The ski race as the highlight of the ski camp: photo from 1945 in St. Moritz.
Hans Gerber / Photopress / Keystone
However, due to the logistical (and financial) complexity, such days are no longer a given, especially in urban areas. Projects like the “Sunrise Snow Days” launched by Swiss Ski and the Swiss cable cars want to counteract this. This means that 8,000 children will be taken to the slopes at greatly reduced prices.
“More than half of them are on skis or a snowboard for the first time. I’ve never heard that anyone didn’t like it,” says the long-time head of popular sports Furrer.
The Swiss Snow Sports Initiative aims in a similar direction, offering schools and teachers ready-made ski and snowboard camps. The aim is for as many children as possible to find their way to the mountains at least once. Managing director Ole Rauch advocates that snow sports be anchored in the curricula, similar to swimming. “If you can’t stay afloat, the consequences are of course more dramatic than if you don’t ski. And yet it is an unparalleled Swiss cultural asset,” he says.
When he sang “Alles fahrt Schii” it was still true: the singer Vico Torriani in the snow.
Comet / ETH image archive
Spiteful end to career
The various initiatives have not yet resulted in immigrants making it to the top in a snow sport. There is no Swiss Slaven Dujakovic. At the same time, that might even be a blessing.
Because after the man with Bosnian-Serbian roots gave up his skiing career at the age of just 24, he unpacked the verbal two-hander: “The Austrian Ski Association never gave me the feeling that they needed me in skiing! (. . .) My wish for the future is that people with a migration background are treated the same as everyone else! The sporting achievements should be judged and not the last name or origin,” he wrote on Facebook.
The Austrian Ski Association reacted immediately. “We very much regret that Slaven Dujakovic obviously got the impression that he was not welcome in the ÖSV family,” he wrote. That was never the case. Nevertheless, efforts will be made to “have a clarifying conversation”.