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Nearly 2 mln foreigners living in Switzerland last year: report

Xinhua, January 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) said on Thursday that 1.99 million foreigners lived in Switzerland at the end of 2015, out of a total population of 8.2 million.

SEM said 68 percent of foreign residents in Switzerland, representing some 1,363,736 people, hailed from EU/EFTA countries.

While 150,490 foreigners took up residency in Switzerland last year, down 1,1 percent from 2014, SEM reported that the number of people who left the confederation in 2015 amounted to 73,444 people, up 6,1 percent compared to two years ago.

According to the Secretariat, 47 percent of those who came to Switzerland last year did so for work while 31 percent came to the confederation for family reunification.

Statistics revealed that Italians represented the largest foreign community living in the confederation, with 313,725 nationals. Germans came second (301,548), followed by Portuguese (268,067). Endit