Switzerland officially has 300,000 Albanians

 Albanians celebrating in Switzerland with the national flag(archive)

 Switzerland currently has a population of 9 million people, of which 26% are foreigners, or 2.2 million, including 3% Albanians. In 1999, Serbia's invasion of Kosovo significantly increased the number of Albanians in European countries, including Switzerland. At that time, Switzerland had 150,000 Albanians, with a significant portion of them being refugees from the Serbian regime. Today, Swiss authorities speak of a doubling of their number, as reported by the Swiss Albanian newspaper "Le Canton27.ch."

Even after 15 years of Kosovo's independence, there are still 50,000 Kosovars in Switzerland with Serbian passports.

Christoph Freymond from the Federal Statistical Office told the Swiss Albanian newspaper "Le Canton27.ch," "The number of Albanians in Switzerland has visibly increased more than other communities. Hundreds of them naturalize each year," meaning they obtain Swiss passports.

According to official figures from Bern, Albanians in Switzerland today constitute the largest and most important community in the country and serve as an example of success and integration. This is not only stated by the media but also by Swiss personalities, as mentioned earlier by the head of Swiss diplomacy, Mr. Ignazio Cassis, in an interview with "Le Canton27.ch." According to Mr. Freymond from the Federal Office, there are now over 300,000 Albanians living and working in Switzerland, known here as "Albannofon," meaning they speak the Albanian language. The vast majority of them are from Kosovo, around 200,000, while around 70,000 are from North Macedonia, 20,000 from the Presheva Valley, and others from Albania and Montenegro.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, around 90,000 other Albanians possess red passports with a white cross. Currently, 114,000 residents from Kosovo, meaning those with passports from the Republic of Kosovo, are registered in Switzerland. According to research by the Swiss Albanian newspaper "Le Canton27.ch," even after 15 years of Kosovo's independence, there are still Albanians in Switzerland with Serbian passports, numbering around 50,000.

It should be noted that the number of Serbs in Switzerland decreases every year while the number of Albanians increases. This is not because the latter come from Kosovo but because the number of Kosovars with passports from the Republic of Kosovo continues to rise due to the transformation of passports, leaving Serbian ones behind and acquiring passports from the Republic of Kosovo. We believe that the number of citizens with Serbian passports in Switzerland will significantly decrease after January 1st of the next year when visa liberalization takes place, and Kosovars will no longer need Serbian passports.