I find it very interesting that you feel the need to justify yourself. I never said Sarkozy wasn't French either. Take a moment to think about it.

You're exaggerating quite a bit here. I looked up the official numbers on www.bfs.admin.ch.

population end of 1990: 6.751 million
population end of 2010: 7.864 million

overall increase over 20 years: 1.113 million or 16.49%

The table (copy attached) came from the official Swiss source the Bundesamt für Statistik, link is http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/e...key/01/01.html

I am not surprised the numbers contradict what went through the media.

I do not see how you can say the table contradicts Sommaruga's numbers when she gave an average over many more years.

What you describe as "contradict" simply is the result that statistics depend on criteria, time-frame and presentation. The statistics in 2010 /11 showed a tremendous increase of Kosovari, which however simply was the result of the independence of Kosovo and Kosovari-Serbs "changing" from being Serbs to being Kosovari, and the statistical share of "Serbs" declining accordingly. The statistical share of Italians over the past 3 decades declined heavily, which however was the result of many Italians becoming CH citizens (many with double citizenship).

Just look at the languages as shown here

Wohnbevölkerung nach Hauptsprache(in Tausend)19902000Total6873.77288Deutsch4374.74640.4 Französisch1321.71485.1Italienisch524.1471Rätoroma nisch39.635.1Spanisch116.877.5Serbisch und Kroatisch109111.4Übrige slawische Sprachen18.623.3Portugiesisch93.889.5Türkische Sprachen61.344.5Englisch60.873.4Albanisch35.994.9Ü brige Sprachen117.4142
Here you cannot separate Swiss on one side and Italians, French and Germans. You however can see that English is clearly beaten by Albanian and Portuguese, but only narrowly by Spanish. However, 74 to 471 by Italian

It is interesting to look at religions + denominations

Wohnbevölkerung nach Religion


in Tausend 198019902000Total 6366.06873.77288.0 Protestantisch2865.72798.02569.1 Römisch-katholisch3030.13172.33047.9 Christ-katholisch16.611.713.3 Christlich-orthodox37.271.5131.9 Andere christliche Gemeinschaften18.98.314.4 Jüdische Gemeinschaften18.317.617.9 Islamische Gemeinschaften56.6152.2310.8 Andere Kirchen und Religionsgemeinschaften11.829.257.1 Keine Zugehörigkeit241.6510.9809.8 Ohne Angaben69.1101.9315.8
the Protestant community which in 1960 still was the majority is, due to the Italian-Portuguese-French-Croatian immigration now "beaten" by the Roman Catholics, who however, due to the Muslims and Greek Orthodox and others has not become the majority.

In contrast to the propaganda of the Blocherites, 311'000 is not exactly a sign of "Islamisation of Switzerland" ... even if it is regrettable that the 2010 figures do not appear

Amazing however to see

Wohnbevölkerung nach religiöser Zugehörigkeit (in %)[4]
1970 2000 Evangelisch-reformierte Kirche 46,42 33,04 Evangelisch-methodistische Kirche 0,17 0,12 Neuapostolische Kirche 0,49 0,38 Zeugen Jehovas 0,17 0,28 Übrige protestantische Kirchen und Gemeinschaften 0,42 1,44 Römisch-katholische Kirche 49,39 41,82 Christkatholische Kirche 0,32 0,18 Christlich-orthodoxe Kirchen 0,33 1,81 Andere christliche Gemeinschaften 0,05 0,20 Jüdische Glaubensgemeinschaft 0,33 0,25 Islamische Gemeinschaften 0,26 4,26 Andere Kirchen und Religionsgemeinschaften 0,12 0,78 Keine Zugehörigkeit 1,14 11,11 Ohne Angabe 0,39 4,33 Gesamtbevölkerung (100 %) 6'269'783 7'288'010
that the Roman-Catholics in 1970 were very close to getting an absolute majority but then had a decline of their share

It is above 60% in our town here and in this particular part above 70%, but lots of foreigners in the next few years will become CH-citizens. Even the parents in many cases use German as their main language and for their children, German is THE language. I remember a few days ago getting down the stairs and hearing some chaps speaking "Bodeschtändigs Schwiizertüütsch" and when getting to the door, there were three Black teenagers there. They ARE Swiss, even if possibly not yet CH citizens.

Immigration is tightly controlled. What you refer to is "more restrictions and limitations".

Yes, outside of the fact that the number of Poles here hardly even comes up in any stats, it is such a pleasure to read news where Poles are nothing more than farm help. Today's NZZ am Sonntag is a great example. Great image portrayed here. It's tiring enough to have to explain to "well travelled and read" Swiss that Poland has electricity and no there are no Polar bears roaming the streets.

Maybe the next time there will be press conference related to that topic I will print a T-Shirt and try to be the attention whore. I believe a T-Shirt with the print "I was born in Poland. I live and work here in Switzerland. I am not a farm help. I am integrated so well that I dont get out of the bed for less than 240k Fränkli per year" will be even less popular than farm help

Yeah, those hordes of Pole roaming Switzerland . There are 3000 Poles officialy registered in Zurich. Drop in the bucket.

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What a pity. I might have planned a short holiday i Poland to take photos of some nice Polar Bears in the streets

Dont forget people riding donkeys to work - of course all work on a farm. Other people are busy selling candles in their shops made of cartonage, as of today, there is no electricity Last time we tried to call family abroad while being on vacation there we made a big fire in my grandmothers garden and all the family members had to blow the smoke real hard so it hopefully reaches family members in West Germany

Ok ok easy you two now

Not so easy in practice though

So what does that make you, part Navajo too?

"Well travelled and read" means travelling to Appenzell and reading Blick am Abend?

I understand the electricity part...but you have actually had to tell people there were no Polar Bears in Poland? Got any Poles there?

...not sure Peter Spuhler agrees

there are lacking "qualified" workmanship everywhere and you can solve it through:

1. outsourcing
2. immigration
3. convince all the housewives to start working (yes I know being a housewife is also a lot of work, but it's doable, it "works" in sweden ...)
4. bring home the 700'000 swiss living abroad
5. convince the companies that growing is bad, i.e. don't expand

and still SVP has not suggested NONE if these measures...so as long as they don't they can not be taken serious...

Well, considering the way healthcare costs and rents have developed in Switzerland over the last couple of years, most women my age work already. I can't think of a single family I know who has the luxury of having one partner take care of the household 100%.

It'll be a tough sell to integrate the 45+ generation into the workforce again, though.

6. Abolish tax deals for international firms

Yet that's how it works for me, and pretty much every family I know!

Tom

I know exactly three not working women. Everybody else works at least 50%. As others said before a family can hardly exist on a single income.

Is answering your own emails the first sign of madness

I just noticed in this table that since signing the bi-lateral agreements the number of EU people increased by around 20% for the period 2006-2010 whereas the non_EU people increased by nearly 25%.
Quite the reverse of what I expected.