Our new study examines how residents in Switzerland perceive migration-related social change in their municipality, their place of work, and in public. We left the ivory tower and listened. The result is a detailed and diverse picture: Migration is perceived as part of social change more widely, but it’s not migration as such that evokes threat. Perceptions of threat and fear are a side-effect of wider social change and economic growth, such as changes to the built environment because of new buildings, cars and transportation, and a perceived impoverishment of social life. It is clear that a majority seek communities with local opportunities to meet and exchange, but many also recognize that the world changes.
The report is available in French (https://www.ekm.admin.ch/ekm/fr/home/dokumentation/studien.html), German (https://www.ekm.admin.ch/ekm/de/home/dokumentation/studien.html), or Italian (https://www.ekm.admin.ch/ekm/it/home/dokumentation/studien.html).
Didier Ruedin 