We speak one of the languages, know enough of the culture and politics, etc. to be inconspicuous and blend into the crowd. More than that, the culture and people and country have grown on us tremendously. :-)
Switzerland is kind of made to appeal to rich foreigners who spend money. Not too long ago, most people here were very poor. A lot of problems are hidden.
Being a foreigner on the ground, I think the reality is more mixed:
CH appeals most to rich and upper-middle class foreign tourists, but I distinguish between “visitor” from “foreigner living there”.
In terms of the latter group, I don’t think CH attempts to appeal: practically all paperwork is in local language with no attempt at furnishing anything in the language of my mother tongue. Further, your immigration status factors into contracts: subscriptions (telephony), rental agreement, etc. We were once turned down for an apartment because of it. Throughout my time abroad, a common trend is that expats (note: first use of that word) don’t bother to learn local language and are typically unhappy. Those that do attempt to are far happier. Does a host country afford and coddling for the former? I’ve never seen evidence of that no matter how rich. Is it hostile? No.
The story could be different for the super rich who live there like Tina Turner and former Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky, but that is not the circumstances of our family nor any other family we know by a long-measure. Citizenship cannot be bought here either. I think for a few million it is purchaseable in Austria or Hungary.
But at the end of the day, in my top-level reply, I had stated “at the moment.” We have lived elsewhere in the world, and the assessment of the overall problems the U.S. are facing would have been identical. The decline is palpable.
> Throughout my time abroad, a common trend is that expats (note: first use of that word) don’t bother to learn local language and are typically unhappy.
In Switzerland, that's no longer going to be an option. They recently implemented a change that requires you to learn at least A1 level (super basic) German in order to keep your B-permit.
As a recent arrival on a B-permit, I think it's a good idea.
Naturalization in Europe is restrictive if you measure it across all axes:
- Allow time-based naturalization outside of marriage?
- Allow dual or more citizenship?
CH is on the more restrictive end, but it is one of the few European countries to allow either of the above. If you compare outcomes and hurdles, the U.S. has been more restrictive to foreigners coming in than CH (don’t believe me; tell that the the Canadians I know who moved to CH instead of working for U.S. branches due to U.S. not issuing family reunification visa).
So the question to ask: what do you want? Permit to enter, live, and work; permanent residency; citizenship? Each of these things are different.
I don't think "extremely restrictive" is the right word.
If you're an EU citizen you have the right to live there no questions asked.
If you're not EU, you can live there to pursue gainful employment so long as your employer can show that you have skills they can't obtain from within Switzerland or the EU.
If you can get a job, you'll be given either an L permit, which is "temporary" but can be exchanged for a B permit after 2 years, which can then be renewed indefinitely. After 5 years, if you can demonstrate integration (criteria vary by canton), you can get a C permit, which is permanent (essentially a green card).
As a skilled worker, I actually found Switzerland to be substantially more friendly than the US, though a lot of the hard work was handled by my employer.
Switzerland is restrictive with naturalization. You can be born here, have spent your entire life here, and still not have citizenship.
Due to bilateral treaties, immigration from EU countries is quite easy nowadays, but for citizens of non-EU countries, far less so. Almost 90% of resident foreigners are European: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Switzerland
It was super easy for me to get a working visa to Switzerland when I had a job there, and I’m not EU. Anecdata for sure, but I was hardly the only non-European around. There were even plenty of war and economic refugees around, far more than I ever encountered in the states.
Not GP, but I have American friends/acquaintances who have decided to raise kids in Sweden, The Netherlands, and Germany due to issues (either real or perceived) with the US.
I mostly think people with money in the US are unlikely to have much different quality of life than developed European counterparts, though. It's mostly people with fewer resources that are disproportionately worse off.
Even the seemingly wealthy or middle class still conduct crowd fundraisers for critical medical care, funerals, etc. We helped another American friend with one of these recently.
Just this week, a friend who is middle class with chronic but manageable health problems was expressing serious intent on leaving the U.S. precisely because of long-term bankruptcy from medical cost prospects.
The worst thing is that the incentives are perverse. Your chronic pain friend can easily cost a society more than they will return in value, but if society will not take care of its feeble and weak than what value does it have?
If your friend emigrates, they may put a burden on the country they go to. Even if they are productive, the cost of their ailment (assuming its not just ridiculously ovepriced medicine in the US that is in reality really cheap everywhere else, in which case the nation he immigrates to should be overjoyed at the opportunity!) can slow economic growth over if someone with no ailment and the same qualifications emigrated instead.
So the US "sheds" a "cost center" and another country takes on the burden. American companies keep turning over record profits and stock valuations while its poor and sick suffer and die, while other nations are burdened with those America should have taken care of itself with its vast wealth if only it had any morality to care about its citizens.
In the middle / upper middle class of America, you are likely to have a much higher time demand than in Germany / Canada / France / Europe. Checking the government's mandated annual time off shows that Germany has 29 paid days off per year, while Canada has 16-30-the US has 0 mandatory paid days off per year.
While you probably have PTO in the US, the typical leave is 2 - 3 weeks, many companies will offer unlimited PTO to further obfuscate how much time you are expected to take and avoid PTO payouts.
