New data released in Switzerland reveals that the UK isn’t the only European country experiencing mass immigration at present.
A new report released by Switzerland’s Federal Statistics Office yesterday reveals that the number of foreigners living in Switzerland last year rose by 61,012. This takes the total number of foreigners living in the country to just under two million (1,998,450), meaning foreigners account for 24.3 per cent of Switzerland’s total population.
The rise in immigration comes in spite of a referendum held at the start of 2014, in which the Swiss public agreed to enforce stricter controls on the number of EU residents who could live and work in the country each year.
Italians (15.3 per cent) account for the biggest group of Swiss-based immigrants, followed by Germans (14.9 per cent), Portuguese (13.1 per cent) and the French (5.8 per cent).
The canton of Fribourg registered the biggest percentage increase in Switzerland’s population last year (1.9 per cent), followed by Geneva and Zug (1.7 per cent) and Vaud (1.6 per cent).