- The permanent foreign resident population in Switzerland increased significantly in the past year.
- Around 81,000 more foreigners immigrated than left the country.
- The reason: the increasing demand for workers.
A total of 114,393 people came to Switzerland from the EU and EFTA, according to the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). That is almost 20,000 more than in the previous year. In the case of third-country nationals, there were 48,042 people.
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Mainly because of the local shortage of skilled workers, the permanent foreign resident population is growing. Here a nurse from the University Hospital of Lausanne.
KEYSTONE/Gaetan Bally
At the same time, 73,736 people left Switzerland. The migration balance thus amounted to 81,345 people. This corresponds to an increase of 19,891 people compared to the previous year.
More than 90,000 took up a position
The number of newly hired foreign workers increased by 26 percent. A total of 90,633 people from abroad took up a long-term position.
According to the SEM, the main reason for the increase in immigration is that more people have been employed in the service sector, in industry and in construction. The increase is an expression of the dynamic development of the economy. Catch-up effects after the corona pandemic also played a role.
Above all, Germans were naturalized
At the end of December 2022, 2.24 million foreigners were living permanently in Switzerland. With a good 335,000 people, Italians are still the largest foreign population group. The second largest group of foreigners are German nationals: a good 317,000 Germans live permanently in Switzerland. They are followed by French and Portuguese nationals.
The number of naturalizations in 2022 was a good 41,000 people, wrote the SEM. People from Germany were most frequently naturalized: almost 9,000 Germans received the red passport in 2022.