The number of foreign residents who leave Switzerland to return home is well above the EU average. There are many reasons for that, including no longer having a work permit.
While many foreign nationals choose to emigrate (read more about this below), for others it is not a matter of choice.
Take Phillip, for example.
He, his wife, and a young son moved to Basel from the United States in 2022 for a job in one of the pharmaceutical companies.
His permit, however, was tied to a temporary position, and once his contract was finished, the family had to leave. As they were nationals of a third country, they didn’t have the same right right to remain in Switzerland as citizens of the European Union or EFTA states (Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein) would.
“We wanted to stay and make our lives in Basel, but that was not possible,” Philip said.
Ian, from the UK, had a similar experience.
As a highly specialised engineer, he had a one-year contract with a firm in Zug, from 2022 to 2023.
“I knew from the start the permit for this particular job would not be extended beyond that time, and I would have to leave,” Ian said.
He did, nevertheless, try to find another employer who might have needed the same specific skillset, so he could remain in Switzerland, “but that didn’t happen.”
Philip and Ian had to leave because they no longer had the right to work here.
There are many more non-EU / EFTA nationals like them whose departure from Switzerland was non-voluntary.
But how many exactly were linked to non-renewal of permits is not known — both the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) and the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) told The Local they don’t have these specific figures.
In case of the FSO, permit-related emigrations are included within the general categories of ‘professional reasons’ and ‘others’ (read more below).
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Why are some work permits not renewed?
Besides reasons mentioned above — they are tied to short-term employment — others include lack of integration and letting the permit lapse, even if inadvertently.
You can read about all the grounds for non-renewal, in this article:
READ ALSO: The reasons Swiss authorities could refuse to renew your work permit
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The wave of returns
Whether willingly or not, this phenomenon is called ‘return migration’, or simply ’emigration’ and Switzerland’s rate is among the highest in Europe.
Out of 20 states in the Eurostat database, Switzerland is in the 6th place, with 54 departures for every 100 arrivals (emigration vs. immigration rate).
It is well above the EU average, with the rate of 34 / 100.
More information about this trend is revealed in the long-term data from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), which shows that the departure rate of immigrants in Switzerland is highest in the first few years after their arrival.
In fact, most departures occurred in the first two years of their residency.
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So the obvious question here is: why do so many immigrants leave Switzerland to go back to their own countries?
At least part of the answer comes from Didier Ruedin, a researcher at the Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies at the University of Neuchâtel.
“The Swiss immigrant population is quite diverse and there is a substantial part who never plan to settle, leaving the country after a few years,” he told The Local.
His colleague, sociologist Liliana Azevedo, agrees.
“People tend to forget that immigrants don’t necessarily settle down,” she said.
“Work is what binds people to Switzerland. Unemployment, insecure or unskilled jobs, are all obstacles to remaining in the country for more than a few years,” she added.
Many foreigners also come to Switzerland to study or undergo training, and leave the country once that is finished.
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Retirement and family on top
While it is impossible to know for sure what prompts each immigrant to leave Switzerland, we get a pretty good (general) idea from FSO’s statistics — concretely, from its Swiss Labour Force Survey Migration Module.
While the data is from 2021, it is the most recent available on this particular topic, so it is fair to assume it is still pertinent to this day.
It shows that the majority of emigrés (23.3 percent) left Switzerland to retire abroad, 20.5 percent cited ‘family reasons’ as the grounds for their departure, while 18 percent left for ‘professional reasons.’
Far fewer foreigners (7.1 percent) emigrated due to ‘homesickness.’
Though the FSO’s data doesn’t indicate the nationalities of this last group, Azevedo said that attachment to one’s country of origin is particularly strong among the Portuguese immigrant community.
And even a smaller proportion of immigrants (2.3 percent) leave Switzerland to study in another country, 2.1 percent want to see their friends again, and 0.4 percent leave to purchase property abroad.
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But that’s not all…
Though there are no official figures to back this up, for a number of The Local’s readers, high cost of living is a primary reason to leave.
“Switzerland has become unaffordable for a lot of people,” said one commentator, echoing the views of many, including reader David Heard.
“As a foreign person who has worked in Switzerland since 2007 and is now facing retirement, I will not have a large enough pension to remain in Switzerland,” Heard said.
“I will move to a lower cost country where my Swiss pension will cover my cost of living and where I can afford to buy a house without a mortgage.”
Others cited difficulties foreigners face in settling and integrating in Switzerland as one of the chief reasons for why they end up leaving.
“Switzerland seems welcoming, but it is hard work, as a foreigner,” said Deborah Jutzeler.
“There are underlying resentments and the knowledge that our infrastructure is under a lot of strain, social systems, schools, traffic infrastructure, accommodation.
“Swiss, on the whole, are fairly introverted, and private. I love living here, I love my children, who are Swiss, but I remember the stress of getting integrated,” she said.
You can read about other reasons our readers cite for emigrating in this article:
READ ALSO: Why foreign residents leave Switzerland
Neither high cost of living nor difficulties integrating are listed in the FSO study, but they (as well as Phillip’s reason — non renewal of permit) may be included under the ‘Other reasons’ category, clicked by 21.5 percent of the study’s participants.
