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Comment by prashp | Hacker News Reader

If you're not white, don't move there. The Swiss culture is very unwelcoming to newcomers.

prashp, why are you spreading such rumors on the internet?

About 25% [1] of the population are foreigners, so it can't be that bad?

If you're not white, still move here (I've been living here since 2016, love it). If you work in IT you most likely end up in a bigger city anyway, and as in most big cities in western europe nobody cares about the color of your skin. Or what languages besides english you speak.

[1] https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/population/m...

> About 25% [1] of the population are foreigners, so it can't be that bad?

It's not a convincing argument. As counterexample, until not to recently, black people were a sizable portion of the US population, and it was literally that bad for them...

They did come to Switzerland voluntarily and could have left any time they wanted, that must mean something. However an overwhelming majority of that 25% are white and European so I agree that it's not the most convincing argument.

I'm sorry if this has been your experience. But I think at least in larger cities the situation is not nearly as bad as you make it out to be (Among other reasons because in a city like Zurich, the definition of what qualifies as "Swiss culture" is extremely fuzzy; there are people with all graduations of skin color, cultural background, and immigration status to be found).

Africans will find a vibrant local culture often welcoming, Arabs and Indians may get some looks from xenophobes. Think of it as Connecticut: lots of greatness, some backwardness in places. The Swiss are aware of their dependency on foreign skilled labour.

This is mostly true if you come from certain nationalities and/or places. Arabs and people from the Balkans have a bad reputation because they are seen as sources of crime and or violence in the traditionally quaint Swiss society.

I don't think it's this easy. Especially not as simple as skin color. But I do admit that it is not a non-issue. Even caucasian germans can have a hard time here. I know enough germans that get xenophobic remarks here and there.

Ridiculous. More than a quarter of Switzerland's residents are foreigners. There are also a lot of cultural differences between the cantons themselves - 4 different languages are spoken for example.

I've actually heard this the case for most immigrants, regardless of race. Would you say it's the case in the entire country, or more so the rural areas?

There are somewhat separate issues here: racism/xenophobia and standoffishness.

Regarding the first: Yes, I'm sure it exists, including, to some extent, in government representatives. It can express itself in more stark ways in rural areas (If you want to get naturalized and live in a rural village, the village gets to vote on your application; it larger places, the process purely bureaucratic). OTOH Switzerland is not a particularly violent country, so generally the racism does not express itself in physical violence.

The standoffishness is a big cultural thing. When we moved back to Switzerland after 8+ years in California, this was something we had to get used to again. OTOH, as others said, 25% of the population is foreign born, so you can always socialize with those… and, who knows, maybe over time you'll develop a taste yourself for keeping your distance and playing your cards close to your vest ;-)

Definitely rural. The cities, especially Basel and Zurich, are very left and open minded.

Would you say this is the case if one speaks German (or French) already?

German or French would certainly help a lot but don't forget that the german speaking part of Switzerland does not speak high german (like germany) but their own accent (swiss german) which you would have to learn to understand first. Noone is expected to actually learn to speak it (if you're not born here) but if you want to integrate better it's a must to at least understand it.

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