Immigration from Former Yugoslavia to Switzerland

There was substantial immigration to Switzerland from the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s and 2000s. While moderate numbers of Yugoslav citizens had residence in Switzerland during the 1980s, the bulk of immigration took place as a consequence of the Yugoslav Wars and the later Kosovo War, as well as by means of family reunion of those who had immigrated during this period.

About half a million immigrants from the former Yugoslavia lived in Switzerland as of 2009, corresponding to roughly 6.5% of total Swiss population. About half of this number are Albanians (mostly Kosovar Albanians and to a lesser extent Albanians from Macedonia), the other half consists of South Slavic groups (Serbs and Bosniaks; and lower number of Croats, Macedonians and Slovenes).

Taken as a single group, people from former Yugoslavia are the largest immigrant group in Switzerland, followed by the Italians at about 294,000, which,however, are not considered as minority but a native Italian-speaking ethno-linguistic subgroup of the Swiss. From the ethnic perspective, Albanians form the second largest immigrant group.

Since the Swiss Federal Statistical Office keeps a record of the nationalities of foreign residents, their ethnicity is not recorded. In the case of former Yugoslavia, where ethnic conflict was the reason for the war and the breakup of the country, this had the consequence that there were several, sometimes mutually hostile, ethnic groups living in Switzerland, all registered under the same nationality.

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