Schweizer Migrationsgeschichte

Migration is a historical normality. Even the early settlements in Switzerland at the end of the last Ice Age were the result of migration. The Swiss mercenaries of the early modern period turned migration into a mass phenomenon. People on the move have connected the country with the rest of the world for thousands of years.

This first overview of Swiss migration history focuses on the protagonists: the men and women who set out to seize opportunities through work, trade or education, to leave behind a lack of prospects and persecution and to start a better life. The authors tell of the Confederates' search for work in faraway places, of Switzerland's rise to become a center of the European labor market at the end of the 19th century and of the treatment of refugees and migrant workers in the 20th and 21st centuries.