Switzerland is a classic immigration country
As noted by the portal Swissinfo.ch, there is a lot of lies and misunderstanding surrounding the phenomenon of immigration. Only a look at the history of the issue can help here.
Almost 80% of foreigners permanently residing in Switzerland have European roots. The largest diasporas in the country are Italians and Germans, which has its historical reasons. The first wave of immigration swept Switzerland at the end of the 19th century due to the rapid development of railway transport. On the one hand, Switzerland was rapidly creating a modern network of railway lines, which required foreign labor.
On the other hand, being connected to the European railway network, Switzerland unexpectedly became a close neighbor to neighboring countries, primarily Germany and Italy, as well as France. As a result, citizens of Germany, France, Italy, and Austria began to move to Switzerland in significant numbers or, at least, to contact it much more closely and intensively than half a century earlier.
The second powerful wave of immigration swept the country during the post-war economic boom from 1950 to 1970. After a decade of stagnation, labor immigration volumes continued to grow steadily after 1980. At that time, a particularly large number of labor immigrants came to Switzerland from Portugal and Yugoslavia.
The conclusion of an agreement with the European Union on the free movement of people, services, labor, and capital was a logical step for Switzerland. Approved by a national referendum, this agreement, along with other treaties that made up two packages of so-called 'sectoral agreements,' gave Switzerland the opportunity, without being an EU member, to become a full-fledged player in the European market for goods and services.
Over the past decades, the social structure of immigrants has changed dramatically: whereas previously mostly unskilled workers came to Switzerland, now the majority of foreign workers in the country are highly educated specialists with narrow profiles, primarily in technical fields.
The share of people with a university degree among such migrants is much higher than the share of university graduates among the Swiss themselves, which is largely due to the features of the country's secondary education system (it motivates schoolchildren to go not to university but to production to pursue a professional career).
The share of foreigners in the country's total population recently exceeded 25%, and this is primarily due to very strict naturalization criteria, which are essentially prohibitive. At the same time, as of 2015, about 20% of foreigners living in the country were born in Switzerland and have never lived anywhere else but Switzerland.
Another interesting figure: about 44% of citizens born outside Switzerland but currently living in the Confederation have been living in Switzerland for 10 years or more, theoretically having the right to apply for citizenship. But they do not do so due to the complexity of the procedure.
Duc-Quang NGUYEN.
Translated by Igor Petrov.