This is the second of three articles that together make up the English version of a feature published 2 April 2009 by Swiss news weekly L’Hebdo magazine on expatriates in the Lake Geneva region. GenevaLunch, a partner of l’Hebdo brings you the English version.

French version © 2009 l’Hebdo

English version © 2009 GenevaLunch (may not be reproduced in part or whole without written permission.

PART ONE

[Part 2, continued] By Julie Zaugg and Mehdi Atmani In Geneva alone there are 65,000 expats, of whom 40,000 are international organization employees and their families. Philip Morris in Lausanne employs 180 of them, Japan Tobacco International, also in Lausanne 157, Procter & Gamble in Geneva 500 and Nestlé in Vevey 584.

Where do they come from?

Americans were still the majority of expats just a few years ago, but they’ve given way to Europeans, with the Schengen Area and the free movement of people as the impetus. There are large numbers of French and Belgian expats, thanks to a shared language, but the British are also here in force: “Several European companies first set up head offices in London, then moved them to Switzerland,” says Eric Maire, project director for the Vaud Economic Development Office (DEV). More recently, new nationalities have been making an impact – Russians working in oil and other commodities trading, Indians in information technology and, with the opening of the Bank of China in Geneva, the first wave of Chinese.

A visit to India in 2005 by Bernard Soguel, a cantonal councilor from Neuchatel, played a key role in several Indian companies setting up shop there, says Jacques Pasche, director of DEWS (Western Switzerland Economic Development Office).

Where are they?

Most of the expats live in the Lake Geneva region. They’re centred in two areas, around Nyon and Morges-Rolle, districts which from 1996 to 2006 had the greatest demographic growth in French-speaking Switzerland, 18 percent and 14 percent, most of them foreigners (Credit Suisse report, August 2008). These expats have not hesitated to live outside the region’s cities, with many of them used to long commutes in their own countries and faced with housing shortages in Lausanne and Geneva. “I even know some people who live in ski resorts and work from home, only going into the city two or three times a week,” says Catherine Nelson-Pollard, English expat and author of the blog Living in Nyon.

In some communes in the Terre-Sainte area English-speakers account for as much as 15 to 20 percent of  the population. Of the 10 communes in Switzerland that have the most English-speakers, nine are in this area, with Leysin being the ninth. “We have 854 inhabitants with 48 nationalities, of which 88 are diplomats,” Bernard Kocker, town manager for Bogis-Bossey says. The commune’s population is 17.2 percent English-speakers. The housing shortage also sends many expats over the border into France.

Who do they work for?

The multinationals employ the greatest number of expats, but there are also many small companies and start-ups, often highly specialized, who seek out this group of foreigners. This is particularly true in areas where Switzerland lacks highly skilled workers: information technology, engineering, finance. Most of these people are high-level managers or other employees with valued skills who are responsible for transferring specific knowledge and skills to their Swiss colleagues.

“When companies set up in Switzerland they start out with mostly expats, usually about 80 percent of the workforce,” says Eric Maire. “But once the critical period of the first year is behind them this is reversed and the bulk of employees becomes local workers.” The international as  opposed to multinational workers are mixed among 160 diplomatic bodies, 250 NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and 59 international organizations. Together these make up what is known as International Geneva.

Are they more privileged than local employees?

There are many advantages to being expatriated to Switzerland. Companies might make up for tax losses linked to the move and pick up part of the cost of schooling children and housing. Multinationals frequently offer the services of relocation agencies who can take charge of difficult settling-in details: finding an apartment, opening a bank account, getting a telephone – and more.

“The day I arrived in Geneva I had a car, a place in an international school for my daughter and a choice of four apartments,” recalls Trevor, who is British, 48 years old, an IT project manager with SGS. “It eased the stress of moving.” Companies negotiate these package deals on a case-by-case basis. “The market determines it. The more a company wants someone to come, the more it’s willing to pay the price that’s needed,” notes Olivia Guyot, secretary general for the Multinational Businesses Group.

Companies have started to complain about these perks, however. In the past three years “inpat” has become a growing trend:  these are employees who are not compensated for being settled in Switzerland, who work for a salary based on local salaries. In addition, they are given no guarantee that a place will be found for them within their company once they return home.

Why don’t they become more involved in life in Switzerland?

“The logic of multinationals is to put their employees in a totally secure environment,” says David Talerman, author of Working and Living in Switzerland. The employee who knows that he can play soccer on the company team and whose go to an international school will be less homesick and more focused on work.

Procter & Gamble has mastered this, with is 24-hour hotline that offers advice and counceling to expats, suggests language courses and organizes a lot of activities outside the office. This might be things like the Geneva marathon, ski outings and yoga courses. The problem with this is that the social life of the expat is therefore totally centred around the workplace. “For a company, it makes a lot of sense, but for the individual, it really doesn’t work,” Talerman argues.

The employee’s spouse, who very often has had to take time out from his or her successful career in order to follow a wife or husband abroad, the situation is even worse: cut off from family and friends, he or she is likely to feel totally isolated. “When a wife or husband fails to find a job that suits, that person remains forever just the wife or husband of so-and-so,” notes Talerman. A few companies that have understood the importance of this issue offer language or other continuing education courses to help them find a place in the local market. In 2001 Novartis, for example, launched its Spouse Career centre. The organization’s mandate is to help spouses find work.

Several groups exist outside companies that help expats find their own, groups like the various international women’s clubs, social networks such as the very larges Glocals, which claims 27,000 members and English-language media such as GenevaLunch, Swisster, World Radio Switzerland (WRS) and Nasha Gazetta for Russians.

And then there are the dozens of events organized by this population, especially welcome drinks evening offered by several groups: the well-known Thursday welcome evenings with the Geneva International Welcome Center and others offered by groups such as Glocals and the Leman Expat Fair, which holds an annual fair for expats in Morges. “It’s not that easy to get motivated to speak French in Switzerland – there are so many English speakers that you can survive without it,” says Nelson-Pollard. “I’ve lived in Chile and in Uruguay where we really didn’t have any choice but to learn Spanish because we were the only gringos in town.” Never mind the poor American who ended up in tears after spending ages trying to get out of a Lake Geneva region parking lot because she didn’t know the French word for “exit.”

But the Swiss in the region also carry some responsibility. “Exclusion is in the mind of the expat – but also in the mentality of the local population,” points out Talerman. “There’s this tendency not to invest too much in a relationship if they think people will soon be leaving.” Himanshu, 34, came to Geneva to work in sugar trading, complains that he hasn’t made any Swiss friends. “I’ve lived in Dubai, in Southeast Asia, in Africa, but this has been the most difficult place to live in terms of mixing in with the local population. Even the people in the apartment building don’t talk to each other,” says this Indian.

Clichés survive – a Switzerland closed to outsiders, foreigners who remain aloof – but reality has more shades of gray. “Expats really are interested in their host country,” says Nir Oken, one of the founders of the social network Glocals.  “We recently had an event to explain Swiss politics to people and 520 people showed up!”

American Ellen Wallace, who started GenevaLunch, also believes that the time of English-speakers who could live 20 years in Switzerland without speaking a word of French is gone. “There’s a younger generation that’s more open. The expat community has become so diversified that it’s been obliged to adapt.” The average time in Switzerland of expats might well be two to three years, but many of them put down roots, in the end. Their children grow up in Switzerland. “My son certainly feels more Swiss than American,” says this journalist. “He travels on his Swiss passport and he’s taken on board Swiss ideas about neutrality and even his relationship to money is essentially Swiss,” she says.

Next: How did Switzerland become a nation of expats?

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