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It’s the large numbers. One of the Swiss Sunday newspapers has published the latest numbers today. Depending on the canton, foreigners are between 15% and 50% o

by Hermel 6y ago

It’s the large numbers. One of the Swiss Sunday newspapers has published the latest numbers today. Depending on the canton, foreigners are between 15% and 50% of the population. And among children below 6, the Swiss have become a minority in their own country.

chrischen 6y ago
Isn’t swiss basically originally just French and Germans?
- microtherion 6y ago
  How would you define "originally"? Switzerland has demonstrable signs of habitation by Homo erectus 300,000 years ago and by Neanderthals. It was part of the Roman empire for several hundred years. It has been de jure independent since 1648 (with the exception of a few years of Napoleonic control), and de facto for at least 150 years before that. And yes, in between there were were several hundred years where Switzerland was part of whatever passed for "France" and "Germany" in those times, but I'm not sure that era was any more fundamental than the rest of history.
- romanoderoma 6y ago
  French , Germans and Italians. Which, together, still make today 50% of all the "foreigners" living in Switzerland. They are called immigrants, but are actually people with a grandfather who went there 50-60 years ago who never became a regular citizen.
  - microtherion 6y ago
    That used to be common until a few decades ago, but naturalization for Swiss-born children of immigrants has become much easier in recent years (and much more of a legal right, rather than a privilege granted at the discretion of communities). Only 0.1% of the Swiss population are non-naturalized third generation immigrants, and only 2.4% are non-naturalized second generation immigrants. https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/population/migration-integration/by-migration-status.html https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/population/m... This is still higher than e.g. in the US, where the corresponding numbers are close to zero, but it's not nearly as high as it used to be.

by Hermel 6y ago

chrischen 6y ago

Isn’t swiss basically originally just French and Germans?

microtherion 6y ago
How would you define "originally"? Switzerland has demonstrable signs of habitation by Homo erectus 300,000 years ago and by Neanderthals. It was part of the Roman empire for several hundred years. It has been de jure independent since 1648 (with the exception of a few years of Napoleonic control), and de facto for at least 150 years before that. And yes, in between there were were several hundred years where Switzerland was part of whatever passed for "France" and "Germany" in those times, but I'm not sure that era was any more fundamental than the rest of history.
romanoderoma 6y ago
French , Germans and Italians. Which, together, still make today 50% of all the "foreigners" living in Switzerland. They are called immigrants, but are actually people with a grandfather who went there 50-60 years ago who never became a regular citizen.
- microtherion 6y ago
  That used to be common until a few decades ago, but naturalization for Swiss-born children of immigrants has become much easier in recent years (and much more of a legal right, rather than a privilege granted at the discretion of communities). Only 0.1% of the Swiss population are non-naturalized third generation immigrants, and only 2.4% are non-naturalized second generation immigrants. https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/population/migration-integration/by-migration-status.html https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/population/m... This is still higher than e.g. in the US, where the corresponding numbers are close to zero, but it's not nearly as high as it used to be.