Insights from Switzerland: The Migration-Mobility Survey

Abstract

The Migration-Mobility Survey (MMS) emerged at exactly the right moment, and for reasons that remain compelling today. When the nccr – on the move was first established, its researchers quickly identified a gap in Switzerland between the political salience of migration and the weakness of the country’s tools to understand it. Switzerland was, and remains, one of the major immigration countries in Europe relative to its population. Yet knowledge about migration often relied on partial statistics, fragmented evidence, and administrative categories that were not designed to capture the growing complexity of contemporary mobility. Further, international migration no longer simply means settling permanently in another country. Rather, it now takes various forms, often characterized by repeated moves, temporary stays, or links to several countries. These new forms of migration raise important questions about integration models and the living conditions of the people concerned. Switzerland is a particularly relevant case for addressing these questions, given its high proportion of foreign residents, the diversity of its population, and the close relationship between its economy and international migration. The challenge was therefore not only to produce more data, but to produce better data: data capable of following migration journeys over time, linking migration to labor markets, family life, integration, mobility, citizenship, and ties across borders, and translating these complex processes into indicators that could inform research, policy, and public debate. In this sense, the MMS should be understood as more than a survey, it is part of a broader effort to better understand migration and make that knowledge useful beyond academia.