More Swiss live abroad

A British car sporting a Swiss flag Ex-press

More and more Swiss are living abroad, with France still the most popular country of residence.

At the end of December 2007 there were 668,017 Swiss citizens living outside Switzerland, the Federal Statistics Office reported on Thursday. This was an increase of 3.6 per cent on 2006.

Not only is the total figure rising, the rate of increase is rising too.

The report by the Statistics Office does not break down the figures to account for the rise in numbers.

But Gabrielle Keller of the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA), which looks after the interests of Swiss citizens living outside the country, does not believe that an increasing number of Swiss want to leave their homeland.

“The figure includes people who have been naturalised abroad,” she told swissinfo. “If you are Swiss and leave Switzerland and get married abroad, after six years your spouse obtains Swiss nationality. These people are also included in the figures.”

She speculated that changes to the law on pensions affecting people moving to the EU which came into force at the end of May might have prompted an exodus of people who were thinking of moving anyway at some point. They may have wanted to beat the deadline to take out their pension savings before they were blocked.

Favourite destinations

In 2007 there was an increase of nearly 5,000 Swiss living in France, with Germany the next favourite country. In all, just over 60 per cent of the Swiss abroad live in countries of the European Union, with the largest colonies in Switzerland’s three biggest neighbours: France, Germany and Italy.

The figures include Swiss citizens who live just across the border but work in Switzerland.

Outside Europe, the countries where the number of Swiss citizens rose the most in 2007 were the US, Canada and Israel, which already have major Swiss communities.

Just 23 per cent of the Swiss living abroad are aged under 18, and among adults, women significantly outnumber men, accounting for 58 per cent.

Nearly three-quarters of the Swiss living abroad have dual nationality.

Swiss voters

Swiss citizens living abroad are known as the “Fifth Switzerland”. (The other four are the four language regions.) The OSA looks after their interests, and encourages them to maintain their links with Switzerland, including taking part in elections.

Some 120,000 Swiss nationals living abroad have registered to vote in Switzerland.

“That is many, many more than we would have thought a few years ago,” Keller commented. “We were afraid that we had reached saturation level because when you live abroad after a certain time you are less motivated to vote.”

“When we launched postal voting, we didn’t expect more than 25,000 people to register. But in fact the number keeps increasing, partly because the Swiss abroad have better access to information.”

She added that e-voting was one way to ensure that the number of registered voters continues to rise.

Although in the October 2007 elections none of the 44 candidates from abroad who stood for election managed to gain a seat, the inter-party Swiss Abroad parliamentary group has 80 representatives in parliament, who are particularly sensitive to the needs of the Swiss resident outside the country.

swissinfo with agencies

The Swiss Abroad

Nearly 670,000 Swiss citizens live outside Switzerland.

The countries with the largest Swiss communities are France, Germany, the US, Italy and Canada.

The Swiss Abroad are encouraged to keep contacts with Switzerland, in particularly via the Organisation for the Swiss Abroad (OSA).

Every year the OSA organises a conference in a different part of Switzerland, attended by about 500 Swiss residents of different countries.

Seventeen Swiss schools all over the world provide Swiss-style education to a total of about 6,700 children.