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Children in Immigrant Families in Switzerland: Family and Socioeconomic Environment

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Abstract

Switzerland is from the end of World War II an immigration country. After three decades of labour migration, in the early 1980s, family reunification progressively became the most important reason for immigration. At the time of the 2000 Census, there were 1.5 million documented foreigners living in Switzerland. This represented 20% of the resident population, one of the highest proportions of foreigners in any country in Europe. Approximately 39% of children in Switzerland were members of families of foreign origin with at least one foreign-born parent. This paper statistically describes the living conditions and socioeconomic environment of those children, by computing indicators according to the origin. It shows the huge diversity of situations regarding the socioeconomic position of parents and the social background. In particular, children from Western Europe and the United States live in highly skilled families whereas children from Portugal and the Balkans live in families with a very low level of qualification. Such results justify the formulation of integration and school policies that take into account the characteristics of each migration flow.

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Notes

  1. 1.0 generation: all foreign-born persons who have arrived in the country of settlement as adults or, in some cases, older adolescents; 1.5 generation: all foreign-born persons who have arrived in the country of settlement as children or adolescents; 2.0 generation: persons born in the country of settlement and having two foreign-born parents; 2.5 generation: persons born in the country of settlement and having one foreign-born parent and one native-born parent; 3.0 generation: persons of foreign origin born in the country of settlement and having parents who were also born in the country of settlement (Rumbaut 2002).

  2. The EU-25 consists of the member states of the EU before January 2007: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

  3. Those figures include divorces that took place in Switzerland or abroad.

  4. For practical reasons, only the main groups of immigrant are included on the tables and graphs. The text also discuss, however, results for smaller groups.

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Correspondence to Philippe Wanner.

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Wanner, P., Fibbi, R. Children in Immigrant Families in Switzerland: Family and Socioeconomic Environment. Child Ind Res 3, 459–476 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-010-9068-0

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