Almost half of Switzerland's leading managers are migrants; like 61% of the professors at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale in Zurich and just like 21% of the population established in Switzerland coming from 202 countries and regions still unknown. Not forgetting the 222 000 migrants a day called "frontaliers" [those on the border]. So what education is to be given to such a diverse migrant population?

Some figures and even a rough analysis show that the problem of education (basic and continuing) for the migrants is particularly complex in Switzerland due to the large number of people concerned (22% of the population), the languages (17% of the population use a language at home which is different to the four national languages), the nationalities (around 202), the cultural and religious horizons as well as the mentalities. The educational needs are extremely diverse: the potential future Nobel Prize-winning migrant certainly has less need for educational help, whereas at the other end of the scale, for certain migrant groups who are illiterate, have no professional training and no efficient cultural criteria, the obstacles are largely impossible to tackle. Economic development, Switzerland remaining in the leading pack of nations with state-of-the-art technology and the decline of its aging demography all largely depend on the contribution from foreign immigration. The very high majority of experts from all sides agree on this. And yet today, just like in the 1970s, the policy of the federal authorities regarding immigration remains responsive. There is a significant hiatus between the reality of the facts, the trends of a foreseeable social and economic evolution, the manifest needs for a political project oriented to the future and the fear of public opinion, its manipulation repeated by nationalist associations and fears of foreignness constantly reactivated by some populist media. A prospective, serene and open vision of the migration issue and the needs for migrant education is lacking. This absence is all the more regrettable as Switzerland's continuing education scene is particularly opaque: skills according to the sectors shared between the levels of the Swiss Confederation, cantons and communes; a competition which is often without effective criteria between public and private providers. Even for someone who is relatively well-informed, the course into this jungle and a reasoned and useful choice remain difficult. With regards to basic and continuing education, the assistance for those with migrant backgrounds and from disadvantaged surroundings is particularly indispensable: deciphering opportunities, receiving specific information and orientation, working out a course of education, clarifying the interest in taking charge of one's own continuing education and even authorising one's partner's education etc. For the generations with a high majority of migrants coming from Italy or Spain in the 1960s and 70s (Romance languages and Catholic educational background), there are mediators and cultural and social interfaces which make integration and education easier: the Church, Catholic missions, Italian and Spanish schools for the children, political parties "in exile", trade unions, etc. This intermediary function for the new migrants in the context of the 2010s, occasionally already existing in urban centres, is to be established and developed. It should not be solely placed on the often financially fragile shoulders of a world of associations, even on those of voluntary work, when the resources are lacking. Undeniably, this is a public task or assignment which must form a part of the State's fundamental obligations in the framework of a prospective vision for the policy of immigration. Its issues are not solely political, cultural or social; they are also economic, as shown by diverse studies on the costs generated by the absence of education. Will the future Federal bill on continuing education, which is currently undergoing development, also deal with this issue of migrant education and assistance that they require? However, the first views known so far do not allow much optimism.