Eminent experts are calling for the creation of a special institute and a lexicon to sum up the wide-ranging and varied research on the history of Swiss emigration. They say a broader view on the larger issue of migration is also needed. A systematic approach would paint a fuller picture of Swiss émigrés, including the multitude of reasons for going abroad over the past century and the influences on them of their chosen states. While today about 700,000 Swiss live abroad, no reliable figures existed before the second half of the 20th century. For Leo Schelbert, a former professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago, the time is right to make a synthesis of all the work that has been done and is still underway. “The younger generation of academics seems to be open to the history of Swiss emigrants,” Schelbert explains. Globalisation and modern means of telecommunication, notably the internet, have helped raise a general awareness of “the oneness of those abroad ...
