The Swiss want to work abroad and discover other cultures.

According to a recent survey made by jobup.ch and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), 77% of the Swiss workforce is ready to work abroad. This puts Switzerland above the average of other industrialized countries. The most popular destinations are English-speaking countries, neighbor and Northern Europe countries. The main motivations for working abroad are not related to the professional career but to the increase of its personal experience and the discovery of new cultures.

In Switzerland, jobs.ch and jobup.ch have asked 4,400 users. The results have been analyzed in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group and the Network (which gathers the biggest on line recruitment job sites in the world). In total, more than 200,000 working people in 190 countries have been interrogated.

A professional mobility

77% of the Swiss have declared to be ready to work abroad, which is above the average of all interviewed countries (64%). Surprising is that, Switzerland is the only industrialized country which is above the international average.
Most likely to expatriation are skilled workers, while the most popular destinations are the English-speaking countries, not only for the Swiss, but also for all people of other countries.
Ranking: United States (50%), Canada (44%) and the UK (44%) – followed by Australia and its 5th rank (39%). In addition to the “American Way of Life”, the little difficult language barrier and rather mild climate are reasons considered sufficient by many.
The list of the most popular cities follows the same pattern: 22% of respondents would opt for London, New York 20% and 11% for Sydney.
Swiss workers also reported to be very attracted to neighboring countries because they often already know the language and where they already have friends or family. Germany ranks 4th (39%) of the favorite destinations for business trips. Northern Europe has also a very good reputation in terms of quality of life and attractiveness of the labor market. Thus, we find, for example, Sweden in the 6th place (31%) and Norway in the top ten (26%) – see infographic below.

The main motivation: to gain experience

Though in almost all other countries, the invoked motivation to emigrate is above all the career opportunities and the high standard of living in the country concerned, it is different for the Swiss. Demonstrating their openness to the world, they cite indeed the improvement of their personal experience as a primary motivation to go abroad (1st place), followed by the discovery of other cultures (2nd place) and the acquisition of a specific professional experience (3rd place). “Meeting new people” comes in 5th position, just after the “professional challenge” – see infographic below.