When you’ve been here a while and look at the average Swiss person’s diary, your first reaction is to think they have an extraordinary social life. Football on Tuesdays, choir on Thursdays, and on Saturdays they volunteer for the village Feuerwehr. The neighbour runs the neighbourhood community garden and her 14-year-old son has band practice every other week. It’s not that they have more free time than you do. It’s just that in Switzerland there’s ‘Vereinsleben’, and it’s a central part of life for half the population.
A ‘Verein’ is an association, usually local and not-for-profit. Sport, music, hunting, gardening, local history, amateur theatre, pétanque, organised hiking, choirs… In Switzerland, there are between 80,000 and 100,000 registered associations. And they are neither distant nor formal organisations: they are the real social network where the Swiss truly get to know one another, where friendships lasting decades are forged, and where, in many rural cantons, the connections that later open professional doors are also built. What in Spain sometimes happens through the neighbourhood, the extended family or childhood friends, in Switzerland happens through the Verein.
The problem that many immigrants realise too late is that, without joining one, it is very difficult to become part of the real social life of the town or neighbourhood beyond the usual polite exchanges in the stairwell. The Swiss are not naturally reserved, but their social life is very much organised around these structures. You won’t be invited to a spontaneous barbecue. They see you week in, week out at training sessions, rehearsals or the annual general meeting. By the third or fourth time, they already know your name. If you’ve been here for two or three years and still hardly know any Swiss people outside of work, this is probably why.
To find clubs in your area, your local council’s website usually has an up-to-date list. The annual membership fee is usually nominal. The barrier to entry is much lower than it seems from the outside.