26 January 2016. No one knows what impact the wave of refugees from Syria will have on European politics and society. Switzerland is still being less affected than Germany, Austria and other countries. This is why, in particular, it may well be worth dealing with the complex issue of migration – reason enough for Prof. Dr. Caspar Hirschi, Head of the Public Programme, to address current events in the public lecture courses.

Migration now and in the past
In the series entitled "Focus on migration: six perspectives", academics from various disciplines and actors who are directly involved will comment on the political, social, legal and cultural implications of the refugee crisis.

Migration, settlement, naturalisation and integration will also be topics in two lectures about the city and region of St.Gallen. The lecture on regional history will look back on the last two centuries and explore the question as to how interaction with immigrants has changed. After the Second World War, Italians soon constituted the biggest group of migrants in Switzerland. They were largely left to their own devices, and so they formed their own community. The Italians' parallel worlds and their influence on Swiss everyday life will be the topic of a lecture course on society.

The strong franc and white-collar crime

In comparison with the refugee crisis, the crisis caused by the strong franc looks almost old, even though it has not been overcome yet. The strong appreciation of the Swiss franc has placed Swiss enterprises and employees under enormous pressure. Experts from academia and business will use the economics lecture to deal with the effects of the high exchange rate of the franc on companies in Eastern Switzerland.

There is hardly anything more topical than the topics of the law lecture: white-collar crime, corruption and human trafficking. In his lecture course, Prof. Dr. Martin Killias will explain how the criminal offences, which were developed in the United States, were able to gain ground internationally as the "epitome of evil". In view of the FIFA scandal – which had been smouldering for decades but burst into flames at once when the American justice system intervened – this topic is also highly relevant for Switzerland.