Echo

David Larible

The Italian clown David Larible, who featured in the cover photo of “Swiss Review” in ­December, made a guest appearance at Amsterdam’s Carré circus theatre over the holiday period. The Swiss representation there sent him a copy of “Swiss Review”, and the clown was so thrilled by the cover photo that he took a photo of “Larible with Larible” and sent it to us. 

A third from immigrant backgrounds

Of the 6.8 million people living in Switzerland aged 15 and over, 2.4 million come from an immigrant background. This is indicated by an analysis carried out by the Federal Statistical Office in 2013. Four fifths of people from an immigrant background were born abroad, while one fifth were born in Switzerland but have parents born abroad. Well over a third (35?%) hold a Swiss passport. The population from an immigrant background is younger than the long-established Swiss population and is therefore slowing down the ageing of the permanent resident population. 

More asylum applications

23,765 people made an asylum application in Switzerland in 2014. That is 2,300 or 11?% more than in 2013. In Europe, the number of asylum applications recorded rose by 35?% from around 444,000 to roughly 600,000. Switzerland’s share of the number of asylum applications made in Europe as a whole fell from 4.8?% to 4?%. This development is influenced by the various crisis and conflict situations around the Mediterranean Sea and in Africa, as indicated by the State Secretariat for Migration. This is leading to high numbers of migrants arriving in Italy irregularly by sea. Eritrean citizens constituted the largest group of asylum seekers in Switzerland in 2014, followed by those from Syria and Sri Lanka.

Film about nostalgic natives of Central Switzerland

The Lucerne filmmaker Romana Lanfranconi is making a documentary entitled “Sehnsucht Innerschweiz” (Longing for Central Switzerland). For this project she is looking for people living outside Switzerland but in whose lives Central Switzerland still plays an important part. Lanfranconi is interested in the family-related and personal stories of homesick Swiss or those who have returned. More on this film project about people from Central ­Switzerland feeling a sense of nostalgia for their homeland can be found at 

www.morbushelveticus.com

Correction

In the article “A second lease of life for Swiss alpine fortresses” in the February 2015 issue of “Swiss Review”, two images were incorrectly attributed to the ­company Swiss Data Safe. The images show the bunker and storage facilities of the company Mount10 in Baar, the ­largest Swiss company in this field. 

www.mount10.ch