Chinese Migrants in Switzerland: From Mutual Assistance to Promoting Economic Interests

The various types of Chinese migration to Europe have by and large been well studied, but we know very little about the case in Switzerland. This piece of research aims at filling the gap in our knowledge. Chinese migration to Switzerland appears to take a very different form from that in other European countries. Here, one does not find the so-called “chain migration,” in which the migrants are concentrated in ethnic sectors of the economy, or live in enclaves in cities, as in England, France or Italy. In Switzerland, on the contrary, one sees rather recent, individual migrants who are mostly highly skilled professionals, students or white-collar workers in various sectors of the economy.