Even though Germans are culturally close to Swiss, they‘re still very different in some ways - much more direct, demanding and their language use was seen as chauvinistic. Even Swiss media, called Germans to essentially STFU in one of a Blick am Abend issue when clashes were peak. There was a lot of resentment among the population towards Germans and it was manifested with aggressive car honking whenever there was a German number plate, slurs, „Scheiss Dütsche!“ etc
Since most Germans refuse to speak Swiss German (we understand them perfectly because we use German in writing) the distance is still there - more so than with the Balkans because eventually they started to speak our language - integrating much more than Germans. To this day, this language „barrier“ has a certain resentment. The Germans came here to make big money with less taxes, that‘s why they came and they‘re educated too. That‘s why competition became greater now. Because of Schengen an EU citizen and a Swiss citizen are the same on the job market.
Now to add to this - Switzerland didn‘t do any major infrastructure projects our highways were all built in the 60s & 80s but the population now started to accelerate. And things move slow here because people can veto literally anything. At Y2K we had 7.2mio people (it‘s >9mio in 2025) that‘s a huge strain to infrastructure, healthcare and housing.
Job Recruiters had a golden age because they could literally get paid to hire anyone from the EU. With eastern & South Europe being more integrated into Western Europe, lots of Poles, Czech, Portuguese and Spanish citizens could now live and work in Switzerland. Currently lots of Romanians & Bulgarians come over and work here and it only increased. Also to add that foreigners are also entitled to benefits under certain conditions.
Non-EU immigration has never been historically high. We never had colonies, were expansionist nor were a maritime country to have access outside Europe. Sub-Sahara African immigration was always low. The only non-EU countries that stands out where Sri Lankans & Eritreans due to refugee waves. (The latter I still don‘t know why).
FINAL
Swiss society has known immigration from its neighbours but because of our culture and the way things move - it‘s not meant to handle larger waves of immigration, especially from outside our neighbours. That’s why even our neighbours were reluctant to move in here pre-Schengen. We have little space to build and strong individual liberty that prevents reckless expansion.
Most understand that this immigration acceleration is unsustainable long term. Also the ethnic Swiss population feels threatened that they lose their identity. The -vícs I mentioned earlier now often hold a Swiss passport these days and it‘s unclear whether they act in the interest of the local population because now they can vote. Some Christian orthodox others muslim - both foreign to Swiss culture. And leftist/feminist movements have achieved that ethnic Swiss woman choose career and individual freedom over family life. No wonder if you look how it is promoted here.
If we continue like this- rent situation will look similar to Singapore and a gridlocked infrastructure but with a lack of identity (Singapore at least takes care of their identity). If we decide to import Sub-Sahara Africans and Indians en mass then it will be over definitely.
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