Language political considerations about multilingual societies with Switzerland as an example

This century will be marked by migration in all its forms. Therefore it has not only moved into public consciousness and the image of the media as a social and political problem, but also into the centre of interest in many disciplines. In a traditionally multilingual country like Switzerland with the highest proportion of foreigners (20%) among Europe's nations it is said that people are particularly sensitive to the contact with linguistic minorities, the contact with speakers of another mother tongue, to the phenomenon of bilingualism and multilingualism, to the necessity of code switching and the need for translation. Switzerland is therefore often seen as a model for dealing with the problems of multilingualism in the interior of a country as well as between states. In view of the language political controversial nature of the question how to develop and organise multilingualism in Europe - or in other multilingual societies like South Africa - this judgement or prejudice needs to be tested.