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Majority of children under six in Switzerland have foreign roots
Between 2019 and 2021, six out of ten children under the age of six were living in a household in which at least one parent was born abroad or is a foreign national.
Hence, 58% of children in this age group have foreign roots, according to an assessment by the Federal Statistical Office published on Sunday in the SonntagsZeitung. In the seven to 15 age group, the proportion of children with an immigrant background was 56%. Ten years earlier, the figures were 54% and 50% respectively.
“We prefer not to publicise these figures for fear of resistance,” says Ganga Jey Aratnam, a researcher into migration, in the newspaper. “But it is important to know what Switzerland will look like in the future.”
+ Immigration spurred Swiss population growth in 2022
This is especially true as the trend continues, he added.
“Among adults, those with an immigrant background are still in the minority, but not for much longer,” he said.
For example, in the city of Zurich 70% of 15-60 year-olds already have roots abroad.
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