The FDFA provides four different ways of communication with Swiss people abroad. These services include: Voting and electoral right, Consular services, Organization of the Swiss Abroad (OSA) and the Swiss Revue.[2][3][4][5][6]
The service "Itineris" provided by the FDFA is available to all Swiss abroad.[7]SWI swissinfo.ch is a multilingual news and information service with a mandate to serve the interests of Swiss abroad.[8][9]
Swiss expatriate regions
In 2023, some 813,420 Swiss nationals were registered with Swiss representations as living abroad.[10][11] For reference, in 2007, a total of 668,107 Swiss citizens (10.0%) were registered as living abroad.[12]
A majority (71.5%) held dual citizenship; vast majority of these had citizenship of another European Economic Area country, namely and primarily France, Germany, Italy or the United Kingdom or were citizens of United States, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Swiss Jews form a small group in Israel.
The Schweizerischer Hülfsverein in Ceylon was founded on 15 September 1933. In the beginning, its main purpose was to provide assistance to Swiss citizens in need. In 1956, the Swiss Circle Colombo was established to promote social activities among Swiss nationals in Ceylon. It is now known as Swiss Circle Sri Lanka.[15]
The largest number of Swiss immigrants arrived in France between the 1850s and the 1930s. Many of them settled in Alsace and in the cities of Paris, Marseille and Lyon.[16]
Swiss immigration to France, from 1851 to 1936 Source: Quid 2003, p.624, b.
Significant emigration of Swiss people to the Russian Empire occurred from the late 17th to the late 19th century. The late 18th and early 19th century saw a flow of Swiss farmers forming colonies such as Şaba (Bessarabia, at the Dniester Liman, now part of Ukraine). The Russian-Swiss generally prospered, partly merging with German diaspora populations. As at the end of 2016, 776 Swiss citizens live in Russia.
Swiss people in Sweden are people who are registered in Sweden and who originate in Switzerland. According to Statistics Sweden, in 2017 there were a total of approximately 3,900 people born in Switzerland including Swedish citizens of Swiss descent.
United Kingdom
There is a significant Swiss community in the United Kingdom.
The first Swiss person in what is now the territory of the United States was Theobald von Erlach (1541–1565).[17] Before the year 1820 some estimated 25,000 to 30,000 Swiss entered British North America. Most of them settled in what is now Pennsylvania, as well as North and South Carolina.
Most Swiss preferred the rural villages of the Midwest and the Pacific Coast, where Italian-speaking Swiss played a significant role in California's winegrowing culture.[18] Swiss immigration diminished after 1930 because of the Great Depression and World War II.
By 1940, some 44,000 Swiss had emigrated to Argentina, settling mainly in the provinces of Córdoba and Santa Fe, and to a lesser extent, in Buenos Aires. In 1856 the colony farm of Esperanza was founded in Santa Fe becoming the mother of agricultural colonies in Argentina, and thus beginning a long process of European colonization and immigration on Argentine soil. Current estimates state 150,000 Swiss descendants residing in Argentina.[20]
The history of Swiss immigration to Brazil began with the foundation of the colony of Nova Friburgo[21] in 1819. Nova Friburgo was the first colonial company contracted by the Portuguese government. The immigrant colonists wrote letters for publication in Swiss newspapers of the period, and these documents reveal the migrants' perceptions, information and expectations.[citation needed]
On 4 July 1819 1,088 Swiss, including 830 from the Canton of Fribourg, departed from Estavayer-le-Lac on Lake Neuchâtel. They included Jean-Claude Marchon, his wife Marie Prostasie Chavannaz Marchon, his brother Antoine Marchon and fiancée Marieanne Elizabeth Clerc. They travelled first to Basle, the meeting point of the Swiss Transmigration for Brasil. And then 2.000 Swiss, by the Rhein River, go to Holland and after a lot of peripetia they depart from St. Gravendeel, near Dordrecht, in the Daphne, for the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, on September 11. Their arrival in Rio de Janeiro was on November 4, spending 55 days, a very good time for the epoch. And, finally, they arrive in Morro-Queimado (Burnt Mount) on November 15, 1819 – about 12000 kilometers in 105 days, approximately 114 kilometers a day.[citation needed]
Chile
5,730 Swiss abroad
Between 90,000[22] and 100,000 descendants.[23][24]
The percentage of Swiss in Chile is small, despite having a relatively large number of members. This is because their linguistic and cultural characteristics are commonly confused with Germans, Italians and French. Swiss migration to Chile took place at the end of the nineteenth century, between 1883 and 1900, particularly in the area of Araucanía, especially in Victoria and Traiguén. It is estimated that more than 8,000 families received grants of land.[25]
Between April 1876 and May 1877 a contingent of Swiss immigrants comprising 119 families came to the area of Magallanes (Punta Arenas and Fresh Water), mostly peasants from the canton of Fribourg.[26]
Later, during the period from 1915 to 1950, was the last recorded mass exodus of Swiss to Chile. 30,000 people settled in the central area of the country, primarily in Santiago and Valparaíso.[27] There are currently 5,000 Swiss citizens residing in Chile and between 90,000 and 100,000 Swiss descendants.[22][28][23]
Joaquin Ritz and Melchor Grubel arrived in Venezuela in 1529 and 1535 respectively - the first Swiss who came to South America. As of 2009, 1,900 Swiss citizens lived in Venezuela.[29]
↑
Marc, Perrenoud (2012-11-13). "Auslandschweizer"[Historical Lexicon of Switzerland] (in German). Retrieved 2013-10-25. Die Neue Helvetische Gesellschaft (NHG) definierte die A[uslandschweizer] als 'Vierte Schweiz' (die allerdings 1938 mit der Anerkennung des Rätoromanischen als vierte Landessprache zur "Fünften Schweiz" wurde). [The New Helvetic Society defined the Swiss diaspora as 'the Fourth Switzerland' (though this became the 'Fifth Switzerland in 1938 with the recognition of Rhaeto-Romansh as the fourth national language.]
