Do you agree with a recent survey of expats that Switzerland is beautiful but it’s tough to settle in and make friends?
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According to an annual survey, foreign workers still love Switzerland’s quality of life but still hate how hard it is to settle in and make friends. Do you agree? What are your experiences? Let us know in the comments below!
From the article Expats’ love-hate relationship with Switzerland continues
I’m really looking forward to enjoying that privilege
I lived in Switzerland for 6 years and left because locals are so unwelcoming. I was told to go back to my own country on several occasions. My eldest son was bullied so badly in the local primary school that we sent him to British boarding school at the age of 8. My partner is Swiss so we should have bee in a better position. I am a teacher and was shocked by the xenophobia displayed by one headmaster.
Deeply troubling, thanks for sharing your experience.
Absolutely right...swiss don't open their doors easily for strangers, but when they confide in you, they can never abandon you.
You can be blond blue eyed and speak perfect German you won’t get it.
I think Switzerland is truly beautiful. Sadly the people I have encountered here (not the expats, the Swiss) have been overwhelmingly unkind.
The sexism is incredible, the racism another level, the xenophobia is hardly concealed.
Unfortunately I have been threatened with physical violence while walking my dog (I am a small 5ft2 woman). This is not uncommon in my area having spoken to some other women.
It is clear as a foreigner you are treated differently, I discovered it doesn’t matter that we have a higher income we won’t get a flat in a certain area if we aren’t Swiss.
I have been trying to learn Swiss German (I’m Zurich based) and have been yelled at for not speaking it. Yet when I asked if they perhaps could converse in French or English (my other languages) I of course was met with a blank stare because of course they can’t, and wouldn’t learn a language from another canton. I’ve since come to learn from our one Swiss (Swiss french) friend that he is even treated like dirt on the German side so it seems that everyone here hates each other and maybe it’s not just us expats who are disliked…
Sadly Switzerland has many wonderful aspects, but my experience with the people has just been very negative. :(
On the other hand making expat friends has been incredibly easy and I have many wonderful Swiss ladies who I walk my dog with, so they have certainly raised the locals in my estimation through their kindness (and they have on occasion stood up for me when faced with sexist men)
My fiancé and I are planning to leave within the next 12 months.
I came here so excited, I’d wanted to live in Switzerland for many years. I’m leaving hoping to never come back. :(
You really haven't had a good experience. In my opinion, however, it often depends on the milieu in which one finds oneself or moves. In many urban neighborhoods, foreigners are sometimes very welcome. In the countryside, it sometimes looks different.
But what we Swiss often do not want to admit: Structural racism and patriarchalism shape our culture much more than we would admit. In this sense: Thank you for holding up the mirror to us (even if it hurts to look inside).
Gracias por compartir su rica forma de vida. A veces tenemos la idea de las grandes Metrópolis mucho desbalances y ruido , con una población cercana al millón y más de habitantes. Pero en todas partes hay metrópolis para contrapesar a la provincia , ocultas muchas veces tras un casco antiguo.
Frankfurt del Meno, ciudad de los rascacielos, y centro financiero pero no califica entre las 10 mejores para vivir en Alemania. El perfil de una ciudad así es de tiempos más breves porque tiene que administrar el dinero. A diferencia de una localidad pequeña donde la ciudad se mueve en torno a una fábrica y a las 6 de la tarde te sientas a tomar una cerveza en una plaza con tus amigos
Please can you explain to me why you answered in German? She wrote in English which you obviously understood reading it. It would of showed more compaction if you would of Weitem back in English than German !
My experience is that it is easy to have hundreds of acquittances, but not real good Friends in the French part, while it is hard to make a friend in the German, but once you get some, they are forever. On the Italian side, easy to make friends like family. This country is lovely and its populations is amazing gentle
Agree living in Switzerland is a beautiful country. But so to are many other countries. Beauty is only skin deep until you are confronted with expat racism from locals. Three times I have been told to go back to where I come from because I was overheard speaking in English and I am white so this is not a matter of POC. I can only imagine how much harder our POC brothers and sisters have it here. Not to mention, it is clear that people here think that kicking a black sheep over the fence is fine and publicly make those views heard within political advertisements. So trying to make friends with Swiss people? I have many Swiss friends but there are many out there prepared to confront you and tell you to go home just because you are a foreigner.
Dear Sir
In Switzerland there is more priority for Europeans to work and live, a Latino or another nationality is almost impossible to have access to a job in Switzerland if he/she has been hired by a Swiss company is different but the treatment towards that person is degrading, humiliating, the Swiss see the Latino as a danger to themselves, they are distrustful, closed to carry out a dialogue, they are not at all expressive by nature are xenophobic towards the Latino and other nationalities that are not European.
Dear Sir
In Switzerland there is more priority for Europeans to work and live, a Latino or another nationality is almost impossible to have access to a job in Switzerland if he/she has been hired by a Swiss company is different but the treatment towards that person is degrading, humiliating, the Swiss see the Latino as a danger to themselves, they are distrustful, closed to carry out a dialogue, they are not at all expressive by nature are xenophobic towards the Latino and other nationalities that are not European.
I've lived in Suisse Romande since the early 1970s and would not want to live anywhere else. I especially appreciate the calm, stability and low crime.
Came to study, married so a citizen, worked for multinationals, lived in small towns & villages ... and am now retired. Switzerland offers so much but it must be earned through mutual respect and adaptability. Few Swiss are of the instant "air kiss" friends with everyone of the most superficial kind, but those do exists in some circles.
Learn the local language, long and complex history and one begins to appreciate the specificities of Switzerland (e.g. no dictators since 1291 says so very much). Also, I personally appreciate the confederate system as opposed to strong central governments --- it forces/allows for dialogue and compromise and local citizen participation, responsibility.
It is true that the actual Swiss one meets (< 75% of the population) are not Latins, probably more like the Nordics. Law abiding, very respectful of each person's privacy far more that gregarious and party animals.
If you make the effort, the return on your investment will be worth it, in my humble opinion. Otherwise a move is probably the best choice.
Agree
I am a foreigner living in Switzerland for 10 years, and we like it, follow the rules in detail, pay plenty of tax. Swiss friends no, but we do not care, 25% of the population are foreigners. My grandkids are Swiss living abroad in my original country and they like it.
The strange thing is that Switzerland is so mixed that a Swiss Geneva person has very little in common with a Swiss from St.Gallen, they do not even speak the same language, different culture. Some Swiss has opened up for friendship, but that is the educated international Swiss, we have the same values and culture.
All kind of Swiss government have been really nice to us.
The next generation Swiss mingle with all across nationalities so future looks much better.
Do the negative criticisms here about the Swiss welcoming foreign settlers apply to people right across the land or does the type and level of welcome vary according to cultural differences in the German, French and Italian parts, or even from city to city or in rural areas?
Yes and Yes
Yes I agree. Even if you become a Swiss citizen you are not considered Swiss. Think of it how many invitations to a couple's home have you received from a Swiss Swiss couple versus from a couple wherein one is a foreigner.
When I joined the Swiss club and got a lovely red passport, did the locals say "welcome"? Not a chance. All I got was "You are paper Swiss, not real, not Eidgenossen". That killed my good feeling right away. I still have very few Swiss friends, so nothing changed.
I am Swiss but also Greek through my parents and yes, I'm not considered true Swiss even though I speak the Vaudoise dialect. It doesn't bother me though because I assert myself.
I love my country and its people - it is what it is. With 25% of the national population being foreign, I can understand a bit of discomfort in the locals. Other countries do not face the same challenge so the impact of foreign culture on local culture is less.
No matter how much foreigners complain nothing will change as the Swiss do not care, apart from to mutter "if you don't like it, leave".
I have integrated very well on a professional level despite some disadvantages and setbacks I would never have had were I Swiss and I am ever grateful. On a very personal note, however, I have been in Switzerland (Vaud) since 2004 and in all that time I have made only 2 'real' friends and I count myself very very lucky. I would like to point out that these friends are not Swiss. I spoke the language as fast as possible trying to ensure a faster social integration but language is not culture hélas!
True, with the precedent complications of socialisation, a lot of events organised by and for members of this free organisation were held back but now I invite as many if you lonely people to register for a free account and find some more people in the same situation to befriend!
Happy networking xx
Another view is that Swiss treatment of foreigners is a bad business decision.
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Switzerland invests big money and effort to invite foreign companies. These companies need expats who often make 90% to 98% of specialists. If expats are treated like dirt, they leave, they don't come, the companies bear cost of replacing them, companies need to pay them extra out of tax breaks which should go to Swiss budget. This costs money. Especially that skilled professionals who provide high benefit margin are welcome abroad, too.
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So friendly clerks who can deal with foreigners, laws providing clear, fair and predictable conditions to settle, reduced waiting times for citizenship or permanent settlement - it is all investment in Swiss future. Much cheaper than multi-billion tax breaks to corporation headquarters.
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I don't see any sense in a canton which does everything that a big company opens a factory in the canton, but treats workers of the said company like barely tolerated nuisance. For me it is inherently illogical. They want a cow to give milk but not to feed it.
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Oddly, as some others pointed, very poorly qualified foreigners are still allowed in. A doctor with a break in employment is not allowed to settle, but a cleaning lady without a break in employment is.
I'm a man from Finland and I got a Danish passport because of one of my grandparents. After 5 years iin Germany I also got a German passport. I met my wife in Germany and we have 3 children.
Last year the bank I work for offered me a 2 year contract to work in Switzerland as part of a promotion deal. I've been in Switzerland for 14 months and I do not like it at all. There is no social communication and other than an italian and a serbian neighbor with whom I talk each day, it is impossible to meet or form any connection with anyone.
I already gave my company a notice that they have 1 month to move me back to Germany or I will accept a job with a different bank. Germany is a lot more fair to the foreigners it asks to come here because the country is dependent on skilled labor from outside.
The government officials have been awful. They gave me an L permit with which it has been really had to get even a bank account or an apartment. After 1 year they gave me another L permit and that's when I've had enough with their nonsense. I already handed a notice to the bank, the landlord and all the telecom and insurance companies that by the end of July I am gone. They can do whatever they want with their contracts and the abuse of foreigners.
Toooootally agreed !
Ask me.. lived years in Switzerland. educated...law abiding... tax paying, local language speaking... Non -eu expat living with a family.
Struggled for years on an L permit even though deserved a B permit. and when the contract expires or is terminated.. you are not eligible to live any further in switzerland.
Nor have access to your unemployment insurance you paid for years.
Nor get any support from the foreigners office.
And I see less educated and qualified people making a joke of the Swiss system by evading taxes, doing drugs.. not working and breaking laws.
Maybe you guys deserve the drug addicts more... Your country and atleast the people working in the foreigners office have a tendency to make it difficult for highly educated foreigners. Now it is understandable, when education is not a priority in a family nor parents encourage it.
So having highly educated people, means the local less educated children have a stronger competition.
Most of my asian colleagues on L permits realize the same thing and after 2-3 years move to Germany where in 5 years they get the citizenship and are treated fairly all the way.
i came from Germany....and. wasted all the years in the Switzerland and have lost the time and career.
Time is a great leveller. Switzerland has had its days. Slowly without enough resources and educated population, they will pay with all the unskilled and uneducated people they have let into the country.
I agree that Switzerland has had its days. Gone are the days when money (legal and not) poured to Switzerland as the only safe place to keep wealth. Switzerland shone on the background of unstable, divided, poorer Europe, militaristic USA and undeveloped Asia. But growth abroad means that the star of Switzerland fades.
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Interestingly, Swiss compare their cities with comparatively rural neighboring regions of France, Germany and Italy, which is of course unusually favorable to Switzerland. Most Swiss compare Zurich to rural Bavaria just across the border, not with Berlin or Geneva with Paris.
The nature is fine, but I like more the alps in France, Italy or Austria where the holiday experience is better as people are friendlier.
My 9 years here have been spent in a high paying job as a senior lawyer, but because my permit is tied to my employer I know the moment I would lose my job I would have to leave the country.
I'm in the process of moving out and I will as soon as they finish building my new home in Indonesia.
After 9 years, my only regret is that I did not decide to leave sooner. On the positive side, 4 years ago I met my husband in Germany and we have a little girl and twins on the way. As soon as the twins are born we will relocate. I would not want them to grow up here.
I think Switzerland is great. if you are in a high paying job and already have a family. If you are single, have lost your job or you have a low paying job then you will have a really bad time here as it is very hard to meet anyone and you will be constantly discriminated.
Lastly, for the single people, my advice is to just register for dating sites and meet people in Germany, Austria and France. Do not waste your time trying to meet someone in Switzerland. you have zero chances and the years will just go past you.
Why should the natives like us foreigners? I've often thought about that whenever I read complaints about the Swiss. They are mountain people, allowed over the past centuries to keep their country because the bigger aggressive powers surrounding them have preferred that the mountain passes, essential to Europe, be run by the natives instead of one of their enemies.
Today, we invade, grateful to live in a peaceful, beautiful, well-run country but do we really think what it is like for the native Swiss? The Swiss are not so much nationalistic as they are communal, living in their towns and villages with their intimate knowledge of local events and speaking their local language. They are not interested in welcoming foreigners and are aware they are disliked, but being pragmatic they accept us outsiders as part of their economic well-being. Their goodwill goes to the Red Cross, or some other organization that helps abroad, countries less fortunate than them.
The funny thing is that the percentage of 2nd-5th generation people who do not like the locals either grows with each year. I bet that in 2-3 generations the so called local Swiss will be less than 20% of the population and that's when they will have nobody left to complain to because everyone else hates them.
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