Historische und soziologische Übersicht über die Migration in der Schweiz

Abstract

Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement

Migrations internationales et croissance de la ville de Zurich entre 1836 et 1949

“…Mais l'immigration en provenance des pays européens a peu à peu augmenté et le solde migratoire suisse est devenu positif pour la première fois dans le dernier quart du xix e siècle. La diversification de l'économie et la construction d'infrastructures de transport et de logements ont créé des emplois hautement qualifiés, mais aussi très physiques et dangereux, qui ont été pourvus par des travailleurs étrangers, venus pour la plupart d'Allemagne et, dans un second temps, d'Italie, un pays particulièrement éprouvé par la restructuration de son économie, des crises agricoles et des guerres (Holmes, 1988 ;Walter, 1995 ;D'Amato, 2008).…”

“…industriel, le raccordement de Zurich au réseau ferré international dans les années 1860 et l'achèvement du tunnel nord-sud sous le massif du Saint-Gothard au début des années 1880 expliquent aussi cette forte hausse de l'immigration. Dans le même temps, la main d'oeuvre italienne a progressivement remplacé les immigrés allemands (D'Amato, 2008).…”

Caught in the Loophole: Film Aesthetics and the (Im)mobilisation of Migrant Dreams in Xavier Koller’s Journey of Hope (1990)

“…immigrants (ten percent of the population). When the number of asylum applicants started to rise exponentially in the 1980s and 1990s, 34 legal and illegal immigration once again became a highly contested topic in politics and the media, leading to a series of attempts to regulate migration into Switzerland as international agreements such as the Schengen Agreement (1985) and the Dublin Convention (1990) created a pan-European migration regime. The first-ever Asylum Law came into force in 1981 and has been revised and tightened multiple times.…”

“…The recovering economy led to rising prosperity among the Swiss population and an increasing demand for foreign workforce. After 1945, Switzerland implemented a system of recruiting workers from Italy, yet limited their permits to a maximum of ten years and severely restricted family reunification rules; known as Italian "guest workers," they were therefore being rotated in and out of the country without being able to settle there 32. While Italians made up more than half of the immigrants in 1970, by the end of the 1970s these "guest workers" came increasingly also from countries such as Spain, Portugal, and Turkey 33.…”

The Consequences of Hosting Asylum Seekers for Citizens' Policy Preferences

“…Long regarded as a stronghold of political freedom, Switzerland has been equally attractive for persons seeking refuge from persecution in Europe, yet a separate asylum law was not introduced until 1981. While asylum migration still accounts for only a minor share of total immigration today, its weight in public and political discourse matches if not surpasses that of work-related migration(D'Amato, 2008).…”