For one more year, Switzerland is the favorite immigration “destination” of Germans. According to the latest figures of the German Statistical Office, announced a few days ago, in 2022 almost 311,300 German nationals resided permanently in the neighboring country. Their number has been increasing continuously for years. In the second place of preferences appears Austria with 216,700 Germans who live there permanently, followed by Spain, which “hosts” 142,600 Germans. The following positions in the top ten of the relevant ranking: France, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Norway.

In addition, in 2022 a record number of Germans who acquired Swiss citizenship is recorded: 7,940 people, i.e. 14% more than in 2021. The Statistical Service itself cites the plausible explanation for the special preference for Switzerland and Austria: “Public a characteristic of the two countries is that the geographical proximity and the common language make it easier for Germans to change residence”, he points out (although the truth is that there are differences in vocabulary and pronunciation, and there are also difficult to understand local dialects).

Fewer bookings, more earnings

However, financial motivation is also considered important, especially for highly skilled workers. The economic review Handelsblatt reports a typical example: a mechanical engineer with a master’s degree in the canton of Zurich is paid – straight out of university and with no previous professional experience – around 85,000 Swiss francs gross, per year. Given that taxation does not exceed 11% and deductions are overall lower than in Germany, he is left with 62,400 francs net per year, i.e. 5,200 francs per month. That is 5,000 euros.

With this money, he can obviously respond more easily to the “approachable” rents of big cities like Zurich, where a rent of 2,000 euros for 60 sq.m. it is considered rather common. And this despite recent surveys showing that the Swiss themselves are “concerned” about their finances.

The “myth” of Switzerland is also nourished by the example of many “surnames”. Like Klaus Michael Kuhn, major shareholder of the shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, the logistics company Kühne + Nagel and Lufthansa, owner of real estate, hotels and a clinic in Davos, “boss” in the Hamburg football team, mother of art and head of a business empire , on which “the sun never sets,” as Focus magazine once wrote. Since 1975, Kuhn has maintained a permanent residence (and tax domicile) in Switzerland, because, as he had stated in an earlier interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper, “in Germany, taxes and social security contributions are much higher than in Switzerland, but also the social envy is intense. The general economic climate is not as liberal and as pleasant as in Switzerland.”

Milestone for Switzerland in 2002

For many years Switzerland, which does not belong to the EU, had drastically restricted the admission of workers from European countries. However, much changed in 2002, after the passage of a complex legislation governing the country’s relations with the EU and guaranteeing the free movement of workers, but with certain restrictions. As a rule, for example, the granting of a residence permit requires the signing of an employment contract lasting at least 12 months.

Recent initiatives for an even closer relationship with the EU did not follow through. However, since 2002 more and more Germans, Italians and Portuguese have taken the opportunity to work in Switzerland. Today the percentage of permanent residents who were not born in Switzerland is close to 30% and is the largest in Europe, after Luxembourg.