Let me run for it!
Where the hell?
Of course in Switzerland!
According to a global survey by the bank and finance giant HSBC, Switzerland is the most wanted location for expats (http://goo.gl/ofIMqJ)!
The place where an expact can have the best balanced lifestyle.
The survey report presents the Confederation like this:
“Money in the mountains: high earnings plus the great outdoors make Switzerland the top destination for expats”.
I could now start praising Switzerland, but I will not do it.
Not to be too negative, but just because here everything is really working very well.
Coming from Italy long time (13 years) ago, I really enjoy living here.
However, when you have been living for a long time in a country, you can also detect some…less positive aspects. Therefore I will warn you on the (very few) items which got very low scores in HSBC survey. You will need to know them if you’d ever decide to come here for living. If just for holidays, please look only at the nice things!
Surprisingly, or maybe not so much, although ranking overall first, Switzerland is the last one of the list (!) when it comes to making friends, especially local friends, and getting a satisfactory social life.
But don’t be too worried. There is another statistics by Wikipedia (http://goo.gl/KqOqhF) where Switzerland is ranking very high: the countries with foreign born-population!
That’s why you can be sure you will find a lot of foreigners and expats in Switzerland. If you are an expat in Switzerland, my dear Reader, become friend with them and get together for some social events, to help Switzerland in next year’s HSBC survey!
Real Swiss 
Thank goodness my countries are UK, Italy and Brazil then…
they are all bottom of the list! 😦
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Thank you for the comment!
🙂 I think it is sometimes better to be at the bottom of some lists, isn’t it?
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Great title Andrea! It describes the expat experience in CH very well.
Very interesting dataset… Surprised by the relatively low rankings of US and Canada. And some countries in Europe don’t seem to compensate for their “faults” on any level: Hello Netherlands and Belgium!
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Thank you, Petrus!
…and thanks to HSBC for “supplying” the title of my post.
Maybe the US and Canada are so wealthy that the benefits for expats going there are not too high, compared to other more “difficult” countries…
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Yes the hell is in Switzerland ! In this Country you find ORDER, SECURITY,RULES and WORK.
It may be these important elements are present in many other advanced Countries, but often
they do not alive all together . In Switzerland it is practically impossible to live without having a
registered work and an official residence. . In spite of that you are obliged to leave the Country
against your will.
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Thank you for your comment!
Exactly!
Then I would suggest to introduce also some rules on the basics of making friends and going for a drink with them. And even some fines in case of too few friends…
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They seem to have their act together unlike a a lot of European nations. Do you agree and why is this?
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I see the Swiss population as a very good example of “compactness”: they are always “all together”! Individuals? Not really so popular in this neighborhood.
Very small Country, very few inhabitants, many dialects and strong very local traditions…This is the Swiss Confederation.
Why? I don’t really know, but since the thirteen century it has been like this.
Probably local ingredients like chocolate, cheese, money and watches, cooked in the mountain thin air, produce this recipe!
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