Intercultural relations in Switzerland

Abstract

Switzerland is one of the most diverse societies in the world, ranking near the top of the diversity index.Footnote1 With approximately 24 per cent of foreign residents it is one of the countries with the highest share of foreign residents in the European context (OECD, 2014). However, it only ranks in the middle of the integration index and near the bottom on the multicultural policy index. Given this imbalance, Switzerland is a particularly interesting setting to examine the integration hypothesis. The Swiss study focuses on immigrant youth with Italian, Portuguese and Albanian backgrounds.