Filipinos in Switzerland

The over 10,000 Filipinos in Switzerland consist of migrants from the Philippines to Switzerland and from their offspring.

They usually speak Filipino and one of the many local languages ​​of the Philippines, partly Spanish as a native language, next to English, the second official language of the Philippines, and, increasingly, German, French or Italian.

In the spring of 1975, Switzerland had 188 Philippine citizens who lived in the country. By the year 2005, the number of Filipino nationals had multiplied in Switzerland to 3547 From the 1970s to the 1990s, a number of Filipinas came to Switzerland as guest workers, mainly as nurses. In the 1980s, some Filipinas came with a permit of 10 months, to officially operate as cabaret dancers; in reality, many were forced into prostitution. The migration through marriage was another common way to Switzerland. After 1992, the Swiss citizens were no longer married Swiss citizenship automatically. The trend of many Filipinos to get a tourist visa to Switzerland and then to remain to find work, began in the 1990s.