The first Italian immigrants came to Switzerland in the 16th century as religious refugees following the
Reformation. However, it was an elite immigration. In the early 19th century, Switzerland was important as a refuge for Italian liberals such as
Giuseppe Mazzini, who were opposed at home. The history of Italian emigration to Switzerland continues in the second half of the 19th century. The majority of emigrants initially came from
Northern Italy, above all from
Veneto,
Friuli-Venezia Giulia and
Lombardy. In 1860 there were 10,000 Italians in Switzerland, in 1900 there were 117,059 and in 1910, 202,809. More than three-quarters came from
Piedmont, Lombardy and Veneto, while immigration from the centre-south was small. during the construction of the
Gotthard Tunnel Labor immigration from Italy began on a large scale in the late 19th century as part of
industrialization and in the course of major construction projects such as the
Gotthard railway or the
Simplon tunnel. Most of the immigrants that reached the country in that period eventually returned to Italy after the rise of
Fascism. Future Italian leader
Benito Mussolini himself emigrated in Switzerland in 1902, only to be
deported after becoming involved in the socialist movement. In the 1930s there was also a small emigration of Italian
anti-fascist intellectuals and politicians, who gave birth to the so-called "Free Italian Colonies". The outbreak of
World War II temporarily halted Italian emigration to Switzerland. During World War II, from autumn 1943 until the end of the war, more than 40,000 Almost 70% of the Italians who emigrated to Switzerland after World War II settled in the German-speaking
cantons. The new migratory wave begun after 1945 was favored by the lax immigration laws then in force. At first the
Swiss government encouraged the arrival of
guest workers, assigning them different types of
work permits, some forbidding job switching, ranging from the "
frontaliere" permit given to Italians living near the Swiss border to the
"C" permit granting the same status of a
Swiss citizen minus the
political rights. and political initiatives on the part of nationalist parties, to reduce the number of foreigners, especially Italians, in the country. In this sense, in 1970 the
Schwarzenbach Initiative, which was aimed mainly against Italians and which provided for a ceiling of 10% for the foreign population, was rejected in a referendum with 54% of votes against. Rising friction with the indigenous majority even led to the creation of an "anti-Italians party" in 1963, the
Schweizerische überparteiliche Bewegung zur Verstärkung der Volksrechte und der direkten Demokratie ("Swiss non-partisan movement to strengthen popular rights and direct democracy "), founded by Albert Stocker in Zürich. As every other immigrant group at the time, Italians were faced with a policy of forced
integration, later satirised in the highly successful 1978 comedy film
Die Schweizermacher (literally "The Swissmakers"), which went on to become the fifth most-watched film of all time in Switzerland Many of the Italian migrants in the 1960s and early 1970s were seasonal workers, whose residence permit was limited to nine months and renewable if necessary, mainly employed in the construction, manufacturing and hotel sectors. Only after years and under certain conditions did foreign workers receive permission for family reunification. Following this large flow of Italian workers, from 1964 to 1989 the
Television of Italian Switzerland (TSI) in co-production with
RAI, broadcast the weekly program ''Un'ora per voi'' ("An hour for you"), dedicated to Italians in Switzerland. In Switzerland, the
Italian language is the national language and recognized as the official language of the Confederation, together with
German,
French and
Romansh. Italian is spoken as an indigenous language in the
Italian-speaking population in
Ticino and in the
southern part of Grisons. Although Italian is an integral part of the Swiss cultural and linguistic fabric, outside Italian-speaking Switzerland its importance and use in the community is decreasing. Since the 1990s, there has been a substantial emigration of Italian entrepreneurs to Switzerland. The flow, very modest in past years (but which began in the 1960s) has strengthened. The best known figure is that of
Ernesto Bertarelli, son of the entrepreneur Fabio Bertarelli who in 1977 moved the
Serono family business from Rome to Geneva. Since the 1990s, the transfer of Italian entrepreneurs to Switzerland has been accentuated, especially in the cantons of
Ticino and in the
southern part of Grisons (favored by geographical proximity, by the common Italian language and by territorial marketing policies). The reasons for these transfers are mainly the leaner Swiss bureaucracy, the lower tax burden, better infrastructure and the presence of technology parks. The Italian-Swiss community has opened numerous schools in the main cities of the country (financed in part by the immigrants themselves, in part by the federal authorities). Two primary schools, one secondary school and one grammar school in
Basel; a primary school, a secondary school and a high school in
Lausanne; a secondary school and a grammar school in
Zug; a primary school, a secondary school, an art school and a high school in
Zürich; a primary school, a secondary school and three technical colleges in
St. Gallen. An agreement between Switzerland and Italy has allowed Italians residing in Switzerland and who have applied to acquire Swiss citizenship to maintain Italian citizenship, acquiring dual citizenship; this has led to a growth in requests for naturalization, allowing them to enjoy civic rights in both countries and thus accelerating the process of integration and active participation in Swiss political life. According to the federal statistics office, in 2017 the Italian-Swiss with dual citizenship were, with over 225,000 individuals, the most numerous among the naturalized people who decide to maintain their original citizenship. The children of emigrants to Switzerland, which began after the war until the early 1980s, hardly decide to return to their homeland, unlike their parents who sometimes take the way back when they reach retirement age. Since the 1990s, the issue of returning, with the aging of the emigrant population, has led to the confrontation with new social problems; in fact, many decide to stay in Switzerland to be close to their children and grandchildren, and others decide to return to Italy. Those who have decided to return may find themselves "emigrants" for a second time, when they realize that the habits of their childhood and the friendships of the past are no longer there, in an Italy that has certainly changed. ==Characteristics==