1. Overview

The integration of migrants is an important political and social aim of the Swiss Confederation. Communicating in a local language has a key role in integration in the new society. With the mandate to develop a conceptual framework for the linguistic integration of migrants, the Federal Council, in 2007, initiated what was to become Fide. Fide stands for «Français, Italiano, Deutsch in Switzerland» and is the name of the Swiss programme for promoting linguistic integration. The aim of Fide is to guarantee people who speak other languages and who have immigrated to Switzerland high-quality and efficient opportunities to develop and give proof of their linguistic competences. The didactic approach of Fide is characterized by principles such as everyday relevance, action and needs orientation.
 

2. Main activities

Fide is a tool of the State Secretariat for Migration SEM. Fide has been developed on 4 axes: 

1. Fide offers many ideas and aid for the organization of a scenario-based approach. The goal is to elaborate principles and tools that enable course trainers to organize their lessons in a needs-oriented and everyday-life oriented manner. All these tools are available in the Fide web site free of charge.
2. For the implementation of high-quality language teaching with migrants, language teachers in the field of integration need diverse professional, methodical and social competences. Consequently a certificate of language teachers in the field of integra-tion has been developed.  
3. The Fide-label is awarded for courses that promote the participants’ linguistic integration in an efficient, holistic and sustainable manner. It guarantees that a comprehensive system of innovative quality features is implemented with these excellent course offers.
4. The language passport Fide is a document that indicates the written and oral language competencies fulfilled in the Swiss national languages German, French and Italian. It is issued by the Fide Secretariat on behalf of the State Secretariat of Migration (SEM). The language passport Fide is recognized in the procedure for granting a residence or settlement permit or for the naturalization.

3. Results of «Fide»

The development of Fide's four axes is based on national and international scientific research. The application of these tools and training should favor a better integration of people coming from migration. However, scientific studies exploring this in depth are yet to be conducted.