Parts of this article (those related to Swiss abroad in infobox) need to beupdated. The reason given is: Source Auslandschweizerstatistik is from 2016, besides there seems to be some vandalism in the infobox since several figures don't match. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(February 2024)
Ethnic group
Swiss people Schweizer /Suisses /Svizzeri /Svizzers
TheSwiss people (German:die Schweizer,French:les Suisses,Italian:gli Svizzeri,Romansh:ils Svizzers) are the citizens of the multi-ethnicSwiss Confederation (Switzerland) regardless of ethno-cultural background[b] or people of self-identifiedSwiss ancestry.
The number ofSwiss nationals has grown from 1.7 million in 1815 to 8.7 million in 2020. More than 1.5 million Swiss citizens holdmultiple citizenship.[8] About 11% of citizenslive abroad (0.8 million, of whom 0.6 million hold multiple citizenship). About 60% of those living abroad reside in theEuropean Union (0.46 million). The largest groups of Swiss descendants and nationals outside Europe are found in theUnited States,Brazil, andCanada.
The demonymSwiss (formerly in English also calledSwitzer) and thename of Switzerland ultimately derive from the toponymSchwyz. Both have been widely used to refer to theOld Swiss Confederacy since the 16th century.[9]
TheRomansh, speakers of theRomansh language, settling in parts of theGrisons, historically ofRaetic stock. Romansh speakers accounted for about 0.5% of population as of 2020.[11]
Switzerland experienced significant immigration from Italy in the very late 19th and early 20th century, such that in 1910 that accounted for some 10% of the Swiss population. This immigration was halted by the Great Depression and WWII. It restarted after the war ended. As elsewhere in Western Europe,immigration to Switzerland has increased dramatically since the 1960s, so that a large proportion of the resident population of Switzerland are now not descended or only partially descended from the core ethno-linguistic groups listed above.
As of 2011, 37% of total resident population of Switzerland had immigrant background.[12]As of 2016, the most widely used foreign languages were English,Portuguese,Albanian,Serbo-Croatian and Spanish, all named as a "main language" by more than 2% of total population (respondents could name more than one "main language").[13]
The Swiss populace historically derives from an amalgamation ofGallic (most significant theHelvetians) orGallo-Roman,Alamannic andRhaetic stock. Their cultural history is dominated by theAlps, and the alpine environment is often cited as an important factor in the formation of the Swiss national character.[15] For example, the "Swiss illness", the condition ofSwiss mercenaries pining for their mountainous native home, became prototypical of the medical condition ofnostalgia ("homesickness") described in the 17th century.
Modern Switzerland is atypical in its successful political integration of a multiethnic and multilingual populace, and is often cited as a model for new efforts at creating unification, as in the European Union's frequent invocation of the Swiss Confederate model.[17] Because the various populations of Switzerland share language, ethnicity, and religion not with each other but with the major European powers between whom Switzerland during the modernhistory of Europe found itself positioned, a policy of domestic plurality in conjunction with international neutrality became a matter of self-preservation.[18]Consequently, the Swiss elites during the period of the formation ofnation states throughout Europe did not attempt to impose a national language or a nationalism based on ethnicity, instead pushing for the creation of a civic nation grounded in democratic ideology, common political institutions, and shared political ritual. Political allegiance and patriotism was directed towards thecantons, not the federal level, where a spirit of rivalry and competition rather than unity prevailed.C. G. Jung advanced the view that this system of social order was one of a "chronic state of mitigated civil war" which put Switzerland ahead of the world in a civilizatory process of "introverting" warlike aggression.[19] A similar view is attributed toGottfried Keller, who is cited to the effect that the Swiss Confederacy could not exist without the endemic rivalry between cantons.[20]
From the 19th century onwards, there were conscious attempts to foster a federal "Pan-Swiss"national identity that would replace or alleviate the cantonal patriotisms. Among the traditions enlisted to this end were federalsharpshooting competitions, ortirs. These competitions were one of the few recognized symbols of pan-Swiss identity prior to the creation of the1815 Confederation and traditionally involved men from all levels of society, including the peasants, who inRomantic nationalism had become ideologically synonymous with liberty and nationhood.[21] TheSwiss national holiday, introduced in 1889, was another symbol of national identity at the federal level. The bonfires associated with the national holiday have become so customary since then that they have displaced theFunken traditions of greater antiquity.
Identification with the national symbolism relating to the Old Swiss Confederacy was especially difficult for the cantons which had been joined to theHelvetic Republic in 1798 without any prior membership in the Swiss Confederacy, and which were given the status of Swiss cantons only after the end of the Napoleonic era. These specifically includeGrisons,Valais,Ticino,Vaud, andGeneva.St. Gallen is a special case in a different sense, being a conglomerate of various historical regions created in 1803; in this case, patriotism may attach itself even to sub-cantonal entities, such as theToggenburg. Similarly, due to the historical imperialism of thecanton of Bern, there is considerable irredentism within the Bernese lands, most visiblyin the Bernese Jura but to a lesser extent also in parts of theBernese Oberland such asHasli.
Swiss citizenship is still primarily citizenship in one of theSwiss cantons, and the naturalization of foreign citizens is the privilege of the cantons.
NoSwiss passports were issued prior to 1915, more than 60 years after the establishment of the modern Swiss Confederation. Prior to 1915, citizens held passports issued by their cantons, the Confederation being considered as a federation of the cantons, not a state composed ofnatural persons as its citizens.
TheSwiss Constitution of 1848 regulated certain rights that the cantons were required to grant to citizens of other cantons, such as the right of residence (in the case of naturalized citizens after a period of five years).[22] TheSwiss Constitution of 1874, which remained in force (with revisions) until 1999, defined Swiss citizenship as inherited from cantonal citizenship: Jeder Kantonsbürger ist Schweizer Bürger ("every citizen of a canton is a Swiss citizen").[23]In the preamble to the currentSwiss Constitution of 1999, a "Swiss People" (Schweizervolk) is invoked alongsides "the Cantons" as sovereign entity, and article 1 reads "The People and the Cantons [...] form the Swiss Confederation." Article 37 still defines Swiss citizenship as inherited from communal and cantonal citizenship: "Any person who is a citizen of a commune and of the Canton to which that commune belongs is a Swiss citizen."[24]As Swiss citizenship is entirely based onjus sanguinis, theplace of origin rather than theplace of birth is recorded in identity documents. As Swiss citizenship is tied to the cantonal citizenship associated with the "place of origin" (Heimatort orBürgerort "home commune, commune of citizenship"), a citizen's place of origin is inherited from his or her father (from the mother if born out of wedlock or if the father holds no citizenship). The significance of the place of origin outside of the naturalization procedure has been gradually abolished in the early 21st century. Since 2012, the municipality or canton of a citizen's place of origin is no longer responsible for providingsocial welfare to that citizen.[25] Since 2013, a woman no longer acquires the place of origin of her husband upon marriage.[26]
While the cantons are responsible for naturalization, federalSwiss nationality law regulates minimal requirements necessary for naturalization. These requirements were significantly reduced in a 2018 revision of the law, allowing naturalization after a minimal period of residence of ten years, and in certain cases as little as five years (naturalization of spouses and children of Swiss citizens; years of residence at ages 8 to 18 count double). A further requirement is that the applicant be "well integrated" and "familiar with life in Switzerland", and must have both oral and written competence in one of the national languages of Switzerland.[27] The federal law just specifies minimal requirements for naturalization, and cantons are free to introduce more stringent requirements.[28] In practice, the cantons delegate the actual procedure of naturalization to thecommunes.
With 25% of the population resident aliens, Switzerland has one of the highest ratios of non-naturalized inhabitants in Europe (comparable tothe Netherlands; roughly twice the ratio ofGermany). In 2003, 35,424 residents were naturalized, a number exceeding net population growth. Over the 25-year period of 1983 to 2007, 479,264 resident foreigners were naturalized, yearly numbers rising gradually from below 10,000 (0.1%) in the 1980s to above 40,000 (0.6%) in the 2000s.[29] Compare the figure of 0.2% (140,795) in the United Kingdom (2004).[30]
The genetic composition of the Swiss population is similar to that ofCentral Europe in general. On the one hand, Switzerland at the crossroads of several prehistoric migrations; on the other hand, theAlps acted as a refuge in some cases. Genetic studies found the followinghaplogroups to be prevalent:
^Collectively the 9.7 million citizens plus the estimated figure of 1.5 million non-citizens abroad with self-reported Swiss ancestry.
^The term is sometimes extended to include the descendants of Swiss emigrants, see e.g."Swiss".New Oxford American Dictionary. Conversely,Swiss nationality law employs a restrictive form ofjus sanguinis policy, i.e. only children or protégés of Swiss citizens are given citizenship upon birth; children born in the country to foreign citizens are subject tonaturalisation. There are three levels ofalien citizens in Switzerland, which means there are numerous second-generation legal aliens who are technically "natives of Switzerland" without being Swiss citizens.
^"Some landscapes were highlighted because they were considered essential in the building of the nation and the shaping of its culture. This was most obvious in Switzerland where the Swiss character was forged by the daily confrontation with the difficult mountainous environment of the Alps. Lunn (1963) suggests that the wonderful scenery gave those who inhabited it an opportunity to develop a sense of dignity and grandeur." Niamh Moore, Yvonne Whelan,Heritage, memory and the politics of identity: new perspectives on the cultural landscape, Ashgate Publishing, 2007,ISBN978-0-7546-4008-0, p. 88.
^Frank McLynn,Carl Gustav Jung (1997),ISBN978-0-312-15491-2, chapter 1. "Jung advanced the paradox that the tolerable social order in Switzerland was a result of having `introverted' war; Switzerland was ahead of the rest of the world in that it was in a chronic state of mitigated civil war and did not direct its aggression outwards."
^Hartley-Moore (2007:213f.): "Localized equivalents of nationalist symbols were also essential to the creation of Swiss civil society. Rather than allowing a centralized federal government to force assimilation to a national ideal, Swiss policy nourished individual characteristics of different regional and language groups" throughout the country. In the Swiss model, pride in local identity is to some degree synonymous with loyalty to the larger state; national identity is nurtured through local 'patriotism.' As Gottfried Keller argued in the nineteenth century, 'Without cantons and without their differences and competition, no Swiss federation could exist'."
Walter Sorell,The Swiss: A cultural panorama of Switzerland. Bobbs-Merrill, 1972.
Heinrich Zschokke,Des Schweizerlands Geschichten für das Schweizervolk, J. J. Mäcken, 1823.Internet Archive, trans. asThe History of Switzerland, for the Swiss People by Francis George Shaw, 1855.Google Books
Frank Webb,Switzerland of the Swiss, Scribners, 1910.Archive.org
Paul Bilton,The Xenophobe's Guide to the Swiss, Oval Projects Ltd, 1999.Internet Archive
Leo Schelbert,Swiss Migration to America: The Swiss Mennonites, Ayer Publishing, 1980.
John Paul Von Grueningen,The Swiss In The United States: A Compilation Prepared for the Swiss-American Historical Society as the Second Volume of Its Publications, Swiss-American Historical Society, 1940, reprinted for Clearfield Co. by Genealogical Pub. Co., 2005,ISBN978-0-8063-5265-7.
Henry Demarest Lloyd, John Atkinson Hobson,The Swiss democracy: The Study of a Sovereign People, T. F. Unwin, 1908.
J. Christopher Herold,The Swiss without Halos, Greenwood Press, 1979.
Julie Hartley-Moore,The Song of Gryon: Political Ritual, Local Identity, and the Consolidation of Nationalism in Multiethnic Switzerland, Journal of American Folklore 120.476 (2007) 204–229.
Arnold Henry Moore Lunn,The Swiss and their Mountains: A Study of the Influence of Mountains on Man, Rand McNally, 1963.
Hans Kohn,Nationalism and Liberty: The Swiss Example. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1956.
Marcello Sorce Keller, "Transplanting multiculturalism: Swiss musical traditions reconfigured in multicultural Victoria", in Joel Crotti and Kay Dreyfus (Guest Editors),Victorian Historical Journal, LXXVIII(2007), no. 2, pp. 187–205; later appeared inBulletin - Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Musikethnologie und Gesellschaft für die Volksmusik in der Schweiz, October 2008, pp. 53–63.
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