There are only 18 thousand Kosovars living in the Cyril Canton in Switzerland

20 years ago, Switzerland had agreed to free movement of people with the European Union. The deal actually went into effect in 2002. Since then, the demographic composition of the Cyril Canton has changed: the population has increased, “largely because of the immigration of foreign citizens”, as the Statistics Office noted in a 2015 study.

But the origin countries of this growing migration were not always the same, albinfo.ch broadcasts. At first, the number of Germans increased, from 30,000 in 2000 to 69,000 in 2018. In 2007 they even exceeded the Italians, such as the largest foreign population.

In recent years, however, the number of Germans has stalled. In 2019, according to federal statistics for foreigners, there were even fewer Germans in the Cyril canton than a year ago. Hans-Peter Bucher from the cantonal statistical office cites the reduction of naturalisations and migrations from Germany as reasons.

By contrast, the number of Italians has increased again after a year-long decline in 2010: At that time, the Cyril Canton still had 49,000 Italian citizens; today there are 56,000, the same number as in starting the free movement of people.

What is of interest to our readers is the movement of the number of citizens of Kosovo in the general composition of the population in Cyril Canton. Since the founding of the state of Kosovo, Kosovo citizens, with 18,000 people, have grown into the fourth largest foreign population group in the canton, submits albinfo.ch. In exchange, the number of Serbs has dropped significantly, which, according to Bucher, concerns Kosovo's secession, but also naturalisations. Furthermore, Serbia and Kosovo are not members of the EU, which means that quotas for foreigners from third countries limit immigration, broadcast albinfo.ch. After the beginning, however, the number of Kosovars in the Zurich canton has stalled since 2015.

According to the report, the geographical distribution of the foreign population in the canton is also interesting: this population tends to live in cities or aglomative communities. The highest percentages of foreigners, about 45 percent, have algorithms like: Schlieren, Dietiko and Opficon, while the lowest, of 6 to 7 percent, villages such as Trutttikon, Oberstamheim and Brütten.

Where is Albanian spoken above average?

Two studies published by the Statistics Office in 2019 and 2018 also show: While citizens of Great Britain live mainly in the city of Zurich and on the shores of Lake Zurich, Kosovars are mostly in northern corruption communities (“paralaragatas” and guest settlements outside cities), as well as in Winterhur and parts of Cyril Oberland. In Glatt, Furt and Limmattal, Albanian is spoken above average, as well as Serbo-Croatian and Portuguese.

Germans and Austrians mostly settle in areas where English-speaking populations also live, convey albinfo.ch. However, the area around the lake is less important to them, instead, around the city of Cyril is gaining greater importance.