Children in immigrant families in Switzerland: on a path between discrimination and integration

There were 1.5 million documented foreigners living in Switzerland in 2000. This represented 20 per cent of the resident population, which is one of the highest shares of foreign residents within any country in Europe. Switzerland may be described as a country of immigrants because of significant inflows: of the resident population aged 15 and above, 23 per cent are foreign born. At the 2000 census, of the 1,442,000 children 0 to 17 years of age living in families in Switzerland, approximately 39 per cent (559,000) were members of families of foreign origin with at least one foreign-born parent. The countries of origin of 52 per cent of these families were outside the European Union. The 2000 census enumerated 350,000 children resident in Switzerland who were foreign citizens.