What do you know about Swiss expats and emigration?

The Swiss passport seems to open many doors, as an exceptionally high percentage of the Swiss expats (59%) mention that getting a visa for their host country was very easy, an opinion only 41% of their global peers share.

Swissemigration, a division of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs provides documentation and general advisory services on individual countries and specific topics. It produces illustrations on the annual figures for emigration among the usual resident population of Switzerland compiled by the Federal Statistical Office and for statistics on the number of Swiss nationals living abroad.

So, where do you fit in?

Expats from Switzerland are willing to sacrifice some of their income in order to enjoy an adventurous life abroad.

Swiss emigration to Europe for 2015

Total Swiss emigration world-wide in the year 2015

Facts about waste water

World Water Day is held on March 22nd to raise awareness of the importance of freshwater. It helps bring attention to a crisis faced by millions around the globe – limited access to fresh, clean water.

This year's theme is 'why waste water' and focuses on getting people to stop wasting the valuable resource.

It is estimated that 663 million people live without access to safe water close to their homes. Instead, they must travel long distances or queue for hours to get it. Many also have to cope with contaminated water – and the associated health problems.

The United Nations General Assembly officially designated March 22nd as World Water Day in 1993. Since then, campaigns have focused on improving water quality and access to freshwater for people around the world. In 2015 – and as part of the Sustainable Development Goals – a UN Initiative set a target to make sure everyone on the planet has access to safe water by 2030.

It is estimated that by 2030, the demand for water will have increased by 50% – most of which will be from people living in cities. As a result, World Water Day organisers are calling for new approaches to wastewater management.

Facts about waste water:
- At present, more than 80% of wastewater produced is pumped back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused.
- Despite most of the world's population being expected to live in cities by 2050, most – especially in developing countries – do not have the infrastructure or resources needed to manage wastewater.
- 1.8 billion people (more than a quarter of the world's population) use a source of drinking water that is contaminated by faeces. This places them at risk of a host of deadly diseases including dysentery, cholera and polio.
- It is estimated that unsafe water and poor sanitation kills 842,000 people every year.
- An area of land roughly equivalent to the size of Sri Lanka is irrigated with wastewater or polluted water. This causes health problems in the farmers working on the land, and eventually the people who consume the products they produce.
- Water, sanitation and hygiene could prevent 9.1% of the global disease burden – and an estimated 6.3% of all deaths.
- Improved water sources reduces the number of deaths from diarrhoea by 21%, while improved sanitation can reduce it by 37.5%.
- According to the USGS, the average person uses up to 100 gallons of water per day. 95% of this goes down the drain – meaning each person wastes between 76-95 gallons every day.
- Despite most of the planet being covered by water, most of it is not available for human use. If the Earth's water fitted into a four litre jug, just one tablespoon would be available freshwater.

Expats in Switzerland

It might be easy to presume that given the cultural diversity in Switzerland, the local population would be welcoming to foreigners. However, according to Internations survey in 2016, 67% of Expats in Switzerland disagree when asked whether it is easy to make local friends in Switzerland.

While it may be difficult to settle in Switzerland, the quality of life there is still a big bonus for Expats. The country ranks 10th out of 67 countries in the Quality of Life Index.

It is true that the Swiss can be a little private, reluctant to become friends with foreigners but REMEMBER once they DO become your friend it is for life!

What does it mean to live together in Switzerland?

Why are rubbish bags in Switzerland different colours? Where can you play sports, and what do you need to know when looking for a job or going to school? These are some of the questions newcomers to Switzerland are confronted with. A new app from swissinfo.ch and the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation provides the answers through an interactive quiz game and online resources.

“Together”, as the app is called, is available for free in seven languages: English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic. It allows users to test their knowledge, learn new information and challenge other players in 10 quiz categories ranging from jobs to Swiss landmarks.

The app contains more than 300 questions with more questions and categories to be released in the coming weeks and months. Users who have more questions of their own about daily life in Switzerland can submit those to the team behind the appexternal link to have them researched, answered and included in the quiz. How cool is that?!?

Swissinfo.ch and the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation decided to produce the “together” app to address newcomers’ desire to integrate into Swiss society and learn more about daily life in the country. Its content is largely based on swissinfo.ch’s “Switzerland How To” external link offering, which provides information about daily life in Switzerland in 10 languages. So, if you haven't checked it out yet hop over and go browsing!

Together is a playful way to test your knowledge, learn new things and find useful information. Together, we are Switzerland.

The world's most influential language

What makes a language influential? Is it one with the most speakers?

According to one group of scholars, including cognitive scientist and linguist Steven Pinker, whether or not a language is influential is less about that language itself, and more about how it connects to others.

To establish how languages are connected, the scholars looked at three forms of writing. If someone, a journalist for example, wants their story to go global, they will most likely print the story in their native language, as well as in those languages they think will have the biggest reach.

First, they looked at over 2.2 million book translations between 1979 and 2011, which were made in over 150 countries and more than a thousand languages. They then looked at which edits to Wikipedia were being done in more than one language, scanning 382 million edits in 238 languages by 2.5 million editors. Finally, they turned to Twitter, looking at 550 million tweets in 73 languages written by 17 million users – more than 10% of Twitter’s active user base.

If researching a global language network shows one thing, it's that English remains the number one most connected language in the world. After English, however, there was no single global network, but rather three sets of smaller networks around the world, linked together by languages that have had historical and colonial influence, such as French, Spanish, German, Russian, Portuguese and Chinese.

Do you have Expat DNA?

My love for infographics is obvious. ExpatChild published one on Expat DNA which has been around for a while but is worth deciphering. Which Expat are you?

Breaking down the Expat DNA:

What makes a great expat:
The ability to adapt to change – being flexible.
Keeping an open mind on the people and cultures that you encounter.
Learning & Speaking the local language.
Living, eating and going about life like the locals do and enjoying it : Being local.
Keen to observe and absorb the sights, sounds, smells and sensations that the world has to offer.
Open to new experiences and learning something new everyday.

Bad expat DNA:
Doesn’t stop complaining (Language is too hard, people are too rude or different).
Prefer to mingle only with expats who are similar to themselves.
Not making an effort to try the local foods or adhere to local customs.
Lead their lives like they did in their home country: resistant to change.
Gets homesick at the first thought of their home country.

Irrelevant DNA:
Being a well travelled individual has no bearing on being an expat. First time expats have just as much fun.
Have a high paying job – not a prerequisite to leading a fun and happy expat life.

Expat life: not always a smooth ride

Expat life is not as easy and smooth as many people think. Moving to another country can be one of the best and most exciting experiences of someone’s life, but it can also be very stressful. Rates of depression among expats can be up to 50% higher than the general population. At the heart of expat stress is homesickness, and many, if not all, expats will experience homesickness at some point. 41% of expats say making friends is a key concern of theirs when moving abroad. Learning the language of your destination country is a key part to truly settling in, though speaking English can get you by in most situations. For expats moving abroad, on average it takes between 5 and 7 years for them to fully adjust and integrate into their new country.

Valentine's Day facts

Each one of us celebrates Valentine's Day differently. Some don't celebrate it at all. Other can't sleep at night wondering who their secret admirer might be?

So, while we wait for February 14th to come along, I'll nibble on a piece of chocolate and share some fun facts about Valentine's Day with you.

Valentine's Day related history:
- The ancient Romans celebrated the Feast of Lupercalia on February 14th in honor of Juno, the queen of the Roman gods and goddesses. Juno was also the goddess of women and marriage.
- Many believe the 'X' symbol became synonymous with the kiss in medieval times. People who couldn't write their names signed in front of a witness with an 'X.' The 'X' was then kissed to show their sincerity.
- Girls of medieval times ate bizarre foods on St. Valentine's Day to make them dream of their future spouse.
- In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who would be their Valentine. They would wear this name pinned onto their sleeves for one week for everyone to see. This was the origin of the expression "to wear your heart on your sleeve."
- In 1537, England's King Henry VII officially declared February 14th the holiday of St. Valentine's Day.
- The most fantastic gift of love is the Taj Mahal in India. It was built by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan as a memorial to his wife.
- Every Valentine's Day, the Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet.

Chocolate:
- Casanova, well known as "The World's Greatest Lover," ate chocolate to make him virile.
- Physicians of the 1800's commonly advised their patients to eat chocolate to calm their pining for lost love.
- Richard Cadbury produced the first box of chocolates for Valentine's Day in the late 1800's.
- More than 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for Valentine's Day.

Flowers:
- 73% of people who buy flowers for Valentine's Day are men, while only 27 percent are women.
- The red rose was the favorite flower of Venus, the Roman goddess of love.
- Red roses are considered the flower of love because the color red stands for strong romantic feelings.

Ready for Switzerland’s annual siren testing

Get ready for tomorrow's emergency! It is a yearly tradition that takes place in Switzerland every first Wednesday of February. It is the day the entire country tests its emergency sirens.

Swiss being Swiss, the government maintains a network of around 7,200 sirens across the country as a public warning system that would be used in case of a national emergency. That could mean a natural disaster such as major flooding, or an imminent threat to or breakdown of a nuclear power plant.

The sirens were originally established to warn of bomb threat during World War Two. In particular Switzerland feared that its dams could be bombed in the manner that Germany’s Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams were bombed by the allies in 1943. The system endured through the Cold War when Switzerland feared being caught in the crossfire of a nuclear attack and has been kept ever since.

The general alarm will be tested at 1.30pm for around half an hour. The water alarm test follows at 2.15pm in applicable areas. The first, indicating general disaster, is a continuous oscillating siren lasting around a minute. The second, is a series of 12 bursts of 20 seconds each at ten-second intervals to warn people who live beneath dams of  impending water-related catastrophe.

Listen to the radio, follow instructions and tell your neighbours to do the same 

This is what the sirens sounded like from our balcony in Lugano back in 2011.  Some things never change!

Foreigners in Switzerland

Today there are more than two million foreigners living in Switzerland and some 2.1 percent of foreigners obtained Swiss citizenship in 2015.

In 2015 there were 2,048,700 foreign nationals with permanent residency (meaning those granted a permit for 12 months or longer) in the country, just under a quarter (24.6 percent) of the total population, said the Swiss statistics office (SS).

The 2015 figure includes 393,600 people who were born in Switzerland but do not have Swiss citizenship, with the rest being foreign-born immigrants.

Of those born outside Switzerland, 44 percent have lived here for ten years or more.

The biggest foreign populations are Italians, Germans, Portuguese, French and Kosovans, which make up more than half (54 percent) of permanent foreign residents in Switzerland.

Geneva has the highest number of foreigners, at 41 percent, followed by the cantons of Basel-City (35 percent) and Vaud (34 percent).

So where do you fit in?

Foreigners by Nationality

% of foreigners applying and receiving Swiss citizenship

Languages spoken at home

Do all Europeans speak a foreign language?

Everybody assumes that growing up in Switzerland you automatically speak more than one language. Well, the truth is 60% of Swiss use more than one language at least one a week BUT the second language is often English and not one of the four national languages.

So, what does the rest of Europe look like?

3 fun food facts about Switzerland

Switzerland is a mountainous country, a small, rugged island in the center of the European Union, known for its irresistible chocolate and breathtaking beauty. Here are some fun, quirky foodie tidbits about cheese, wine and chocolate.

1. Cheese Please!
Switzerland is home to 450 varieties of cheese, ranging from extra hard to soft, with crazy-hard-to-pronounce names like Sbrinz, Mutschli, Formaggini, and Tomme Vaudoise.
The Swiss even have proof of how fantastic their cheese is: out of 2,615 products entered from 22 countries in 89 categories, the Swiss took the first prize in 2014 at the World Championship Cheese Contest. The US have claimed this title in 2016. Who will be champion in 2018?

2. Swiss Drink Their Own Wine
Did you know that only about 2% of Switzerland's wine leaves the country. The Swiss produce approx. 200 million liters of wine per year and consume almost all of it themselves. Since it never goes too far, you can always count on a good homegrown drink and good company. In 2014, the average Swiss drank 33 litres of wine which puts the Swiss at 4th place worldwide for annual wine consumption per capita.

3. Swiss Love their Chocolate
Switzerland is internationally known for its high quality chocolate. But do you know just how much chocolate is made here? Between 18 Swiss chocolate companies, 181,414 tons of chocolate were produced in 2015. Roughly one third is domestic consumption thanks to the Swiss who eat over 10kg of chocolate per capita. Two thirds of the Swiss chocolate production is destined for export.

Do you know the names of all Santa's reindeer?

Old Santeclaus with much delight

His reindeer drives this frosty night.

O'er chimneytops, and tracks of snow,

To bring his yearly gifts to you.

The reindeer which pull Santa’s sleigh are thought to have come from a poem from 1823 by Clement C. Moore "A Visit From St Nicholas". It is more commonly known as "The Night Before Christmas. The names of the magical flying animals are:

1. Dasher

2. Dancer.

3. Prancer

4. Vixen

5. Comet

6. Cupid

7. Donner (or Donder)

8. Blitzen

9. Rudolph

Originally, Santa had eight reindeer. And then Rudolph came along. So now he has nine. Rudolph’s story was originally written in verse by Robert L. May for the Montgomery Ward chain of department stores in 1939.

Seven facts about Santa's reindeers

Eight little reindeer beside Santa's sleigh, 

Getting hitched up - to be on their way.
The first one said, "We can't be late,"

The second one said, "Christmas won't wait."

The third one said, 'The sleigh's full of toys....."

The fourth one said, "For all the girls and boys."

The fifth one said, '"I'm ready to fly...."
The sixth one said, "Across the evening sky."
The seventh one said, "Look, it's starting to snow."
The eighth one said, "I think it's time to go."
"
Ready?" asked Santa. "It's almost Christmas Day."
And off they all flew - - up, up, and away!

One of my most popular posts around Christmas is: How many reeindeer does Santa have?
I therefore decided to come up with some more fun facts on reindeer.

1.) The names of Santa's reindeer are from the poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas", more commonly known as "The Night Before Christmas," written by Clement Clarke Moore in 1823.

2.) Most of Santa’s reindeer have male-sounding names, such as Blitzer, Comet, and Cupid. However, male reindeers shed their antlers around Christmas, so the reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh are likely not male, but female or castrati.

3.) Rudolph's story was originally written in verse by Robert L. May for the Montgomery Ward chain of department stores in 1939, and published as a book to be given to children in the store at Christmas time. According to this story, Rudolph's glowing red nose made him a social outcast among the other reindeer. However, one Christmas Eve Santa Claus was having a lot of difficulty making his flight around the world because it was too foggy. When Santa went to Rudolph's house to deliver his presents he noticed the glowing red nose in the darkened bedroom and decided it could be a makeshift lamp to guide his sleigh. He asked Rudolph to lead the sleigh for the rest of the night, Rudolph accepted and returned home a hero for having helped Santa Claus.

4.) Norwegian scientists have hypothesized that Rudolph’s red nose is probably the result of a parasitic infection of his respiratory system.

5.) Reindeer have large hooves that spread apart as they walk on the snow. They act like snowshoes and prevent the reindeer from sinking in the snow! Have you ever tried walking with snowshoes?  These special hooves also help them look for food beneath the snow.  The tendons in their hooves create a clicking sound when they walk.

6.) Reindeer have an excellent sense of smell. Because food is scarce in the Arctic, reindeer use their great sense of smell to detect food buried deep beneath the snow.

7.) Reindeer are excellent swimmers.

The modern Third Culture Kid

Denizen is an online magazine and community dedicated to people who grew up in multiple countries, international school alumni, or Third Culture Kids (TCK). Third Culture Kids are the international nomads that possess the cross-cultural views and diverse experiences that are necessary in a ever-shrinking world.

Formally defined, TCKs are people who have spent a portion of their formative childhood years (0-18) in a culture different than their parents. TCKs are, quite literally, citizens of the world. They are hard to define and are made of an infinite amount of experiences.

Last August Denizen conducted an informal online survey of more than 200 Third Culture Kids. The majority of respondents were female, with the average age being 29. They were curious about the lives of the modern Third Culture Kid. They wanted to learn more about who these TCKs were, how often they’d moved, and how they had aged.

To the most frequently asked question “Where are you from?”, the easiest response is always “It’s complicated.”

The Switzers - the 193 nationalities of Switzerland

Switzerland has 8.3 million inhabitants, a quarter of whom are migrants from 193 countries. One person from each appears in a new photo book "The Switzers" by photographers Reiner Roduner and Roland Schmid.

When Roduner read that Switzerland was home to people from practically every country in the world an idea was born: find an interesting person from every nation and take their portrait.

All of these people make up an important part of Switzerland’s identity. Identity is in constant flux and is defined by the people who make up a society. This book reflects what they have to say about their new home. Take a look for yourself: http://www.switzersbuch.ch

Watch the crowdfinding video:

Swiss Expat Stats

The Swiss apparently do not find their motherland to be a particularly exciting country, since the most common (although not the most important) reason for their relocation is the search for an adventure or a personal challenge (mentioned by 28%). In addition, 24% of the Swiss report that they specifically wanted to live in the country they currently reside in, and according to a further 22% they simply enjoy living abroad.

Many Swiss expats have previous experience with life abroad. Almost a quarter (24%) has lived in four or more countries before, excluding Switzerland and their current host country; globally, only 16% of participants can say the same. Planned lengths of stay do not deviate as much (e.g. 27% Swiss vs. 25% overall plan to possibly stay forever). However, in contrast to the worldwide trend, stays of 3–5 years are somewhat more popular with the Swiss than those of over five years (20% and 10%, respectively).

Luckily, the Swiss passport seems to open many doors, as an exceptionally high percentage of the Swiss expats (59%) mention that getting a visa for their host country was very easy, an opinion only 41% of their global peers share.

Switzerland through the eyes of an Expat

It is true that the Swiss can be a little private, reluctant to become friends with foreigners but once they DO become your friend it is for life!

For more info click here.

14 more Swiss fun facts

1.) The Rolex Company invented the first waterproof watch in Switzerland in 1927.

2.) The global watch industry is dominated by few countries, mainly Switzerland and China. China is the world’s top watch producer in terms of unit volume, but 99% are inexpensive, quartz watches. In the luxury segment Switzerland enjoys a near-monopoly position.

3.) Famous Swiss cheese products are Gruyere, Emmental and Appenzeller.

4.) Gruyère cheese comes from a village in Switzerland called Gruyères. There are allegedly 75 different Alpine scents in the cheese, including vanilla, orchid, violet, chestnut, mint, wood shavings, hazelnuts and fresh grass among them. Two-thirds of Gruyère production is consumed in Switzerland; the European Union and North America eat the rest.

5.) Dalai Lama owns the smallest vineyard in the world, which is located in Switzerland. It consists of only three vines and has an area of 1.67 square meters.

6.) In Switzerland, there are more banks then dentists.

7. ) The first ever youth hostel, established to protect the travelers from bandits, has been operating in the Swiss Alps for nearly 1'200 years.

8.) Teaching is one of the highest paid occupation with the most vacation time: 12 weeks!

9.) Swiss businessman Jean-Henri Dunant also known as Henry Dunant was the founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross, received the very first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

10.) Swiss mailboxes have two slots – one for letters, and one for packages.

11.) In Switzerland, it is permissible to lease a cow, and during the duration of the lease, you get to keep all the cheese that is made from that cow’s milk.

12.) In Switzerland, it is illegal to keep just one guinea pig; they must be kept in pairs.

13.) The world’s largest meringue was baked in 1985 in Frutal, Switzerland. It consisted of 2500 eggs and 120 kg of sugar, and it had to be baked in specially adapted sauna and was then served with 80 liters of cream. It was polished off by locals in less than 3 hours.

14.) Charlie Chaplin’s corpse was stolen by a small group of Swiss mechanics in an attempt to extort money from his family. After retrieving his body, he was reburied under 1.8 meters of concrete to prevent further attempts.

10 more facts about Switzerland

1.) Switzerland is the oldest neutral country in the world; it has not fought a foreign war since its neutrality was established by the Treaty of Paris in 1815.

2.) Switzerland has been an independent country since the year 1499, apart from occupation by Napoleon’s France between 1798 and 1815.

3.) In 2007, Swiss troops accidentally invaded its neighbor Liechtenstein after getting lost in a rainstorm.

4.) The Swiss Guards who protect the Vatican, in the Vatican City are dual citizens and the only Swiss citizens allowed to serve in foreign armies.

5.) Switzerland has a square flag; the only other square country flag belongs to the Vatican.

6.) The CERN particle physics laboratory near Geneva is the world’s largest research centre. Here, more than 100 meters below ground, we find the accelerator that simulates the conditions occurring fractions of a second after the big bang.

7.) In 1891, Karl Elsener invented the Swiss Army Knife after finding out the army’s knives were actually made in Germany. He wanted to create a knife that could have multiple uses and was made in Switzerland. There are over 400 different models of the Swiss Army Knife, and designs today can include an altimeter, barometer, and a computer USB memory card. It has been nicknamed “The World’s Smallest Toolbox.”

8.) The Nestlé Company, started by Henri Nestlé in 1867, buys up almost ten percent of the world’s coffee and cacao bean crops by itself annually. It also created Nescafe, the world’s first instant coffee in 1938.

9.) Every single one of the seven billion Toblerone  produced annually comes from the factory just outside the Swiss capital.

10.) Swiss chocolatier DeLafée has actually developed gold chocolate. They blended 24-karat gold dust into cocoa butter to create edible chocolate gold.