Today’s Migration-Mobility Nexus in Switzerland

This chapter provides a general overview of the Migration-Mobility Nexus in Switzerland. Today’s patterns of migration move on a continuum from long-term and permanent to increasingly temporary and fluid. Based on data from the Migration-Mobility Survey and on theoretical and political considerations, it aims at providing a general empirical overview of the migration flows towards Switzerland. First and on a theoretical level, the two paradigmatic lenses of migration research and mobility studies are presented. Second, the transformation of European migration regimes since the 1970s and its effect on the patterns of migration and mobility are discussed. Third, we show how Switzerland, being part of the European Migration Regime in transformation, can be used as a laboratory to understand the changes in and of an advanced post-industrial society. To this end, we provide a short empirical overview of the immigrant population and their living conditions in the country. Fourth, the chapter provides a set of analytical questions that will be addressed throughout this volume – by means of the Migration-Mobility Survey data – and discussed in the concluding chapter.