In the early 19th century, Switzerland was important as a refuge for Italian liberals such as Giuseppe Mazzini, who were opposed at home.

[10] Labor immigration from Italy began on a large scale in the late 19th century as part of industrialization and in the course of major construction projects such as the Gotthard railway or the Simplon tunnel.

In this sense, in 1970 the Schwarzenbach Initiative, which was aimed mainly against Italians and which provided for a ceiling of 10% for the foreign population, was rejected in a referendum with 54% of votes against.

[16] Rising friction with the indigenous majority even led to the creation of an "anti-Italians party" in 1963, the Schweizerische überparteiliche Bewegung zur Verstärkung der Volksrechte und der direkten Demokratie ("Swiss non-partisan movement to strengthen popular rights and direct democracy "), founded by Albert Stocker in Zürich.

[17] As every other immigrant group at the time, Italians were faced with a policy of forced integration, later satirised in the highly successful 1978 comedy film Die Schweizermacher (literally "The Swissmakers"), which went on to become the fifth most-watched film of all time in Switzerland[18] Many of the Italian migrants in the 1960s and early 1970s were seasonal workers, whose residence permit was limited to nine months and renewable if necessary, mainly employed in the construction, manufacturing and hotel sectors.

Although Italian is an integral part of the Swiss cultural and linguistic fabric, outside Italian-speaking Switzerland its importance and use in the community is decreasing.

The reasons for these transfers are mainly the leaner Swiss bureaucracy, the lower tax burden, better infrastructure and the presence of technology parks.

[26] The children of emigrants to Switzerland, which began after the war until the early 1980s, hardly decide to return to their homeland, unlike their parents who sometimes take the way back when they reach retirement age.

Those who have decided to return may find themselves "emigrants" for a second time, when they realize that the habits of their childhood and the friendships of the past are no longer there, in an Italy that has certainly changed.

This renewed migratory flow led Italians to be the first foreign group in Switzerland, overtaking German citizens who in the 2000s had reached the record.

Today the typology of the Italian emigrant is more heterogeneous than in the past, when they mainly occupied jobs in construction, catering and manual industry.

Today, in addition to the category of average workers and skilled craftsmen, a percentage of Italians who come to Switzerland are graduates and hold positions of responsibility in scientific and cultural institutes, such as, for example, the physicist Fabiola Gianotti, director general of CERN in Geneva.