Immigration policy is one of the most debated and controversial topics today. Whether in Switzerland or elsewhere, the relationship between the "nation state", its borders and its population is far from being settled. The dynamics of globalization and Europeanization, imposing ever stronger limits on traditional notions of territorial sovereignty, have given rise to an increasing need for rules governing the access to societal institutions such as labor markets, electoral systems, citizenship or, in the case of refugees, asylum. Meanwhile legislators are faced with the need to define an efficient and legitimate balance between economic, humanitarian and cultural openness, on the one hand, and control, on the other.
With this debate, the Swiss Political Science Review seeks to contribute to the ongoing controversies in politics and academia. Its initiators, Sandra Lavenex (University of Zurich, member of the Editorial Committee of the Review) and Sandro Cattacin (Director of the Swiss Forum for Migration Studies in NeuchΓ’tel), have decided to focus the debate on three themes, which will be treated consecutively in the first three issues of the Review in 2001. 1 In this first issue, the contributions deal with the new draft Aliens Law (AuslΓ€ndergesetz, AuG) in Switzerland. This text constitutes the first complete revision of the Aliens Law of 1931 and aims at defining a "coherent and comprehensive migration policy" (Art. 3 AuG). We have asked three experts to take positions on the draft law. Andreas Wimmer (University of Bonn), scientific consultant to the Expert Commission on Migration (ECM) of the Federal Council, analyzes the political process behind the drafting of the new law and argues that this law is a typical "Helvetic compromise" between the various federal, consociational and direct democratic elements of Switzerland's political system. George Sheldon (University of Basel), also a member of the ECM, discusses the draft law from an economic point of view. Focusing on labor-market developments, Sheldon examines the challenges and opportunities facing different categories of workers in Switzerland and scrutinizes the efficiency of administrative immigration procedures. The more social dimension of Swiss immigration is at the heart of Josef Martin Niederberger's contri-1 The contributions to this debate were first presented in Zurich on 8 December 2000 at a workshop