Imagine two maps in your mind's eye. On one, the regions where many mountain bikers are out and about are marked. Graubünden, Valais, Ticino. The trail hotspots, in other words. The other map shows the areas where mountain bikers are the subject of the most heated debate. Eastern Switzerland, the Bernese Oberland, parts of Central Switzerland. And now put these two maps on top of each other for comparison. You can see: Mountain bikers are primarily seen as a problem in places where they are hardly ever seen. The fewer mountain bikers, the more heated the debates.

Now replace the word "mountain bikers" with the term "foreigners" in the above paragraph. Notice anything? The issue of foreigners also makes the biggest waves where their numbers are smallest. In Appenzell, the Muoata Valley and Entlebuch, the fear of foreigners is generally the greatest - even though people here are in fact among themselves. In urban metropolitan areas with a traditionally higher proportion of foreigners, dealing with foreigners is less complicated. In other words: the fewer foreigners, the more heated the debates - just like with mountain bikers.There is another analogy between mountain bikers and foreigners: that of the scapegoat. On the trails, mountain bikers are to blame for all the bad things: open fences, broken paths, frightened animals, extinct plant species. The same applies to foreigners: increased crime, harassed women, drug dealing. The only difference is that foreigners regularly pass the buck. Once it was the Italians, later the Spanish, then the Turks, the Yugoslavs, the Tamils, and now the Eritreans have to take the rap. On the trail, at least the scapegoat has been the same for years: the mountain biker.The analogy with foreigners shows that the discussion about the use of the trails is essentially not about the behavior of mountain bikers. It is about the fear of the other, of those who are not the same. Those who are different are rejected. Want an example? No hiker is bothered by trail runners, even though they have to stand just as far to the side when they meet them as when they meet a mountain biker. The speed of trail runners is often not far off that of mountain bikers. The reason for the problem-free coexistence: the trail runner is basically one of the hikers, just a little faster. They may not differ significantly from mountain bikers, but the same is obviously true on the trail as in "real" life: If two do the same thing, it's far from the same. That's the case with mountain bikers. And the foreigners.

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