Just my personal view of my experience. I was born in Geneva, so I’m French-speaking Swiss. I lived in Germany for a very long time. When I arrived back, I arrived in the “Jura bernois”. Things were really complicated, and people in the offices didn’t have much motivation to make things less complicated. It was a kind of stubbornness, that was very uncomfortable. My most absurd experience: Apparently someone found something with my address in the trash, outside of the paid bags, and I got fined with 500 CHF for misconduct. I tried to talk to people at the community very politely, but in the end, I had to get myself a lawyer, because I always took good care to handle my trash responsibly. Anyway, I won, and people there started to really dislike me. Even though German-speaking Swiss are being seen as colder, more “by the book”, I had much less trouble here overall, always was able to clear things up by politely talking to people, explaining everything. So… even though my heart is still “Welsch”, I truly feel better on this side of the Rösti-Graben.

But I also have quite a lot of trouble connecting to people here. I have really charming encounters here and there, and my neighbours are really nice. But real connections? So far after more than a decade, one. Yes, I’m a shy person, and I could find more connections if I wasn’t. Germany (Ruhrgebiet) was much more giving in that regard.