Foreign bankers do more harm than poor immigrants, says hierarchy

SWISS BISHOPS have urged Catholics to resist xenophobia, saying that foreign bankers posed more of a threat than low-paid migrant ­workers, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt.

Their message was issued to mark the annual Swiss National Day on 1 August, which this year came six months after a referendum on restricting immigration in Switzerland. Just over half of the turnout voted in favour.

They acknowledged that many people feared losing their job and being replaced by cheaper foreign labour, and called for the introduction of a minimum wage. But the foreigners to fear, they said, are “the international finance companies who allow entire economic systems to break down just by moving capital around, and the criminal clans who control entire companies in order to launder money and invest the profit in massage parlours and brothels”. These “foreigners” do not break into houses, “but they get us in their clutches by stealing our consciences and our culture.”