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What do the Swiss actually think of foreigners?

Around one in four residents of Switzerland is a foreigner. What do the Swiss actually think of them?

What do the Swiss actually think of foreigners?
Many foreigners come to Switzerland through one of it'd borders, like this one with Italy. Photo by AFP

The Local examined statistics released by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) for 2018 — the last year for which such figures are available. They “indicate the level of openness of the population, by focusing on the attitudes toward foreigners' rights and on their behaviours.”

“In general, the population is tolerant”, the FSO found.

For instance, 67 percent of those surveyed are against sending back foreign nationals to their country of origin when Swiss jobs become scarce; 61 percent are for the family reunification of foreigners who have lived in Switzerland for at least five years.

As far as participation of foreign nationals in the Swiss political process, 47 percent support this idea but 52 percent oppose it. 

READ MORE: EU immigration: Switzerland’s foreign workers in numbers 

Other results are just as telling.

For instance, 64 percent believe that foreign workers are essential for Switzerland’s economy, while slightly more — 66 percent — think that immigrants do the work that Swiss natives don’t want to do.

The vast majority, 70 percent, rejected the argument of Switzerland’s populist groups that foreigners are responsible for any increases in the unemployment rate.

The population is divided in regards to another claim by rightwing parties — that foreigners abuse Swiss social benefits: 51 percent didn’t agree with this statement, while 47 percent did.

Right-wing groups such as Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which is behind September's migration limitation referendum, also argue that Switzerland became less safe due to the influx of foreigners. 

However, 71 percent disagreed with this, and 70 percent reject another SVP contention — that the presence of immigrants in the classroom has a negative effect on the education of Swiss children.

These numbers show that the Swiss have a mostly positive attitude towards foreigners in their midst.

However, a study conducted in 2019 by the National Center of Competence in Research, which analyses migration and mobility, shows that, in certain cases, immigrants are discriminated against when looking for a job.

The study found that people with foreign backgrounds must submit 30 percent more applications than native Swiss candidates in order to be invited to a job interview — even if their qualifications are the same.

Job hunting?

Other research shows that a similar phenomenon affects the search for apartments.

Sociologists from the Universities of Geneva, Neuchâtel and Lausanne conducted an experimental study on discrimination in the Swiss housing market by sending 11,000 fictitious applications in response to real estate advertisements.

They found that candidates with Kosovar or Turkish names were not given as many opportunities to view apartments as non-foreign applicants or applicants with European names, even though such practices are illegal in Switzerland.

But researchers said that Switzerland is no exception and similar discrimination against foreign job and housing applicants exists in other European countries as well.

 

 

 

 

 


 

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ANALYSIS: Will immigration to Switzerland continue to grow or could it slow?

In the past few years, an increasing number of foreigners have come to Switzerland, swelling the ranks of its population to 9 million people. Will this trend continue in the future?

ANALYSIS: Will immigration to Switzerland continue to grow or could it slow?

From a country of just 8 million people a decade ago, Switzerland’s population grew to over 9 million residents in 2023 — primarily due to more foreign nationals coming in.

“Switzerland has been in a situation of uninterrupted demographic growth for several decades, and this is explained in particular by the arrival of young migrants, who also contribute to the Swiss birth rate,” Philippe Wanner, professor at the Institute of Demography and Social Economics at the University of Geneva told The Local.

Just in the period between July 2022 and July 2023, for instance, more than 90,000 foreigners settled in Switzerland.

Now forecasts call for the population to swell to 10 million within the next decade — which has prompted the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) to collect enough signatures to launch a national vote in the near future to stop more foreigners from coming into the country.

The SVP argues that Switzerland’s infrastructure — including housing, healthcare system, and public transportation — would not be able to withstand so many more residents.

READ ALSO : Switzerland faces new anti-immigration vote 

This is based on the assumption that as many — or even more — foreigners will continue to move to Switzerland in future, attracted by salaries that are quite a bit higher than the wages they would earn for the same kind of work in their home countries.

But is there a credible scenario under which immigration will slow down?

According to Swiss demographer Hendrik Budliger, high immigration numbers in recent years “don’t necessarily mean the trend will continue.”

Certain things would have to happen at the political and economic level, however — both in Switzerland and abroad — for this scenario to become reality.

These are the main ones:

Fewer people leaving their home countries

One factor, according to Budliger, would be that other countries in Europe that are grappling with labour shortages as Switzerland is “will try to retain or bring back their workforce.”

In Italy and Portugal, for instance, “significant tax deductions are granted” to keep their workers from leaving.

“If more countries create such [financial] incentives to retain employees, Switzerland will become less attractive,” he pointed out.

Economist Manuel Buchmann agreed that  “EU nations themselves need this skilled workforce and are willing to do a lot to ensure that their nationals don’t leave the country.”

Fewer job vacancies in Switzerland

The country is suffering from an acute shortage of qualified workers — the main reason why many employers are hiring workforce from the EU and EFTA (Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein) nations.

If, however, Switzerland’s low unemployment rate should increase, or if suitable candidates can be found within the country, then companies will not recruit employees from abroad.

This is especially true as the Swiss law stipulates that a job can be offered to a foreign national only if no qualified candidates can be found in Switzerland.

Anti-immigration initiatives are accepted

In 2020, 61.7 percent of voters turned down SVP’s proposal to curb immigration from the EU.

This meant that Swiss companies could continue to recruit from those countries.

However, if voters decide to go the opposite way — for instance, by accepting the SVP’s latest anti-immigration proposal — then the government would have to implement measures to drastically curb the number of foreigners coming into the country.

READ ALSO: Why Switzerland can’t rely on foreign workers to fill its labour shortages

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