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I lived in the Geneva area for a long time. Loved the city, the food, the cleanliness of everything, the amazing climbing and hiking and skiing nearby in every direction. Hated the casual racism.
I live in Zurich, not Geneva. I enjoy that people are polite, it‘s very international, things just work (trains are on time etc.), live quality is extremely high (close to the mountains, close to italy, france, high wages, low taxes,...). It‘s not the right thing for everyone though, some expats leave again because it‘s not always easy to make friends among locals, when you make friends with other expats they are likely to leave again, it‘s outrageously expensive (rent, food, anything).
Oh and one more thing: now that I have kids, I love that it is such a safe environment. You can give them a lot of freedom without the need to worry. But - we will always be foreigners here, kids learn a differently language at daycare than at home. I think it‘s an opportunity, but it would also be easy to take a different perspective and miss home.
Not sure about the racism, but just know that Swiss can be conservative and the cantons or language zones within Switzerland even have an opinion about the others, not to say about those overseas. Have german friends who found it hard to fit in. But Switzerland has the most expats in Europe I think.
Lived in Geneva for 19 years. Exceptional education, exceptional food. Great if you like to do things outdoors. You’re on the lake, 1.5 hours from the alps. Lots of hiking, and very cheap travel to anywhere in Europe. Definitely a little racist; and I has much less energy than other countries (e.g few people on the streets at night, few very festive events compared to the US, Spain for instance.)
Switzerland is like the shire and Swiss people are like hobbits. They have a great life and don’t like to stray from it too far (generalizing, of course). Geneva is less lively than Zurich, but I’d still move back :)
I used to live in Geneva. It’s a great area to live, it has an involved expat community, but I’d agree with P1 that you’re going to be an outsider. Cost of living is outrageous so make sure you have a expat/comp package that makes sense.
Geneva is fantastic. Easy to assimilate into the expat scene. Keep in mind, most folks do speak at least some French, and French is used by expats with waitstaff etc
P2 what race are you?
Echoing what everyone has mentioned about Geneva and Zurich (recently moved to Zurich from NYC). Love the city for the most part— very close to all things outdoors (hiking, skiing etc) and a number of different major cities— Milan and Munich are fairly close by. The weather is pretty good so far and I love how safe the city is.
What I don’t like are (a) how ridiculously expensive everything is (b) how early everything seems to close. The city basically shuts down at ~9-10pm and on Sundays/public holidays, nothing seems to be open i.e good luck grocery shopping on a Sunday :D
Haha true the grocery shopping or even just finding an open restaurant on a Sunday! I already had forgotten about how strange that was in the beginning, it‘s something I just got used to by now - I guess I have been switzerlanded 😉. If you google „switzerlanded“ you will find out more about how expats feel about the country .
I got a ticket once for doing laundry too early on a Sunday — they take their noise ordinances seriously over there
@P1, haha, I think I’m slowly being “Switzerlanded” 😂 I do really like the country so I have little to no qualms about it.
Also PSA, there’s a food festival happening right by the Hardtum tram stop (http://www.street-food-festival.ch/). You should check it out! :)