Audrey Hepburn | schwingeninswitzerland

A couple of Swiss immigrants

Switzerland has one of the highest percentages of foreigners of any country in the world. Tons of famous, and not so famous people (us) have moved to Switzerland. They have a very, um, generous tax policy.

Resident foreigners and temporary foreign workers make up about 22% of the population (30.6% of the population is either an immigrant or first generation). Famous Swiss immigrants include: *

Courtesy of Top Gear and Hublot

Courtesy of jsp31’s Blog

Freddie Mercury
Sir Roger George Moore (James Bond)
Yannick Noah
Patek Phillipe’s Antoine Norbert de Patek
“King of Commodities” Marc Rich
Michael Schumacher
Tina Turner

Courtesy of Why Not? and OWN

For centuries, people have immigrated to Switzerland. In general, its immigrants have been highly skilled and/or educated. The Swiss watch industry was fed with French Huguenot’s who fled persecution in France. Immigrant German professors started Zurich University. Many Italian immigrants worked on Switzerland’s great engineering projects in the Alps.

courtesy of Leopard Trek

*For you cycling fans, famous cyclists who have lived/trained in Switzerland include: Fabian Cancellara (a Swiss child of Italian immigrants, until recently he was my most popular post), Oscar Freire, Francisco Mancebo, Jan Ullrich, Christophe Moreau, Cadel Evans, Markus Burghardt, Andreas Klöden, Linus Gerdemann, Thor Hushovd, Daniele Nardello, and Thomas Frei.

Swiss party slams ‘exploding’ number of asylum seekers (vanguardngr.com)
A Brief History Of: Swiss Banks (time.com)
Why CH? (schwingeninswitzerland.wordpress.com)
The Road Through The Alps Into Switzerland’s Lötschental Valley (schwingeninswitzerland.wordpress.com)
Skiing in Sunny, Snowy Crans Montana (schwingeninswitzerland.wordpress.com)
Our Basement Bomb Shelter, Otherwise Known As Our Storage Unit (schwingeninswitzerland.wordpress.com)
Winkelwho? Winkelreid, The Legendary Swiss Hero (schwingeninswitzerland.wordpress.com)

Sorry for the bad pun, I just couldn’t help it. I’m also sorry for the excessive “Cute Swiss Towns” posts. You might have guessed. We’ve had visitors and have been busy showing them around. As a visitor, I really appreciate anything my hosts do to show me or teach me about where they live. I, perhaps erroneously, assume that the rest of the world appreciates this as well. As a result, staying with us can be a sort of boot camp. If you give me the slightest indication that you want to see and do things, it’s on. You were warned.

When my mom was here, we went to Morges. It’s located between Geneva and Lausanne, near Nyon, on Lac Leman (Lake Geneva). Some people commute from there to Geneva (the housing is so tight in Geneva that some people don’t have a choice, others like this adorable town).