8 replies to this topic

[Wino]

I hear that Switzerland has more Thai expatriates per capita than anywhere else in the world. I wonder if that is true? Since the King grew up there, perhaps there is a sort of allure to Switzerland. Any thoughts on this?

[smoker]

Any place that allows you to easily hide your money from tax officials is going to be popular with expats.

[Bob]

Wino, on 23 September 2009 - 06:59 PM, said:

I hear that Switzerland has more Thai expatriates per capita than anywhere else in the world. I wonder if that is true? Since the King grew up there, perhaps there is a sort of allure to Switzerland. Any thoughts on this?

I don't know about the "per capita" statistics but, frankly, I'm very doubtful of what you heard. According to Wikopedia, the entire population of Switzerland is about 7.5 million and, of that number, about 1.5 million are registered resident foreigners. Of that 1.5 million resident foreigners, only about 69,000 are from all of Asia.

I'd bet a nickel that Vancouver has a much higher number and percentage (per capita) of Thais living there than Switzerland.

[Wino]

Bob, on 23 September 2009 - 08:59 PM, said:

I don't know about the "per capita" statistics but, frankly, I'm very doubtful of what you heard. According to Wikopedia, the entire population of Switzerland is about 7.5 million and, of that number, about 1.5 million are registered resident foreigners. Of that 1.5 million resident foreigners, only about 69,000 are from all of Asia.

I'd bet a nickel that Vancouver has a much higher number and percentage (per capita) of Thais living there than Switzerland.

According to wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia....cs_of_Vancouver there are 1,565 Thais or .08% of the population. Not sure if Switzerland has a similiar chart showing the number of Thais. Of course, we are are talking percentages of Thais in the country and not in one city.

[Bob]

Guess I was thinking asians versus Thais in Vancouver (there do seem to be a lot of asians there).

As I understand it, the then-existing King went to Switzerland in 1932 when the absolute monarchy ended in Thailand and I think the royals lived in Switzerland until some time after the second world war.

North of Chiangrai, at Doi Tung (Doi means mountain so I'm guessing that "Tung" is the name of the mountain), the
Queen Mother (present King's mom) built a swiss chalet which presumably was built because of fond Swiss memories.
There are a lot of very well manicured gardens next to the chalet and the place is open for tourists. I'd recommend it if you're in the area although I'd note it that it often rains there because it's at a slightly higher elevation.

[Wino]

Bob, on 23 September 2009 - 10:02 PM, said:

Guess I was thinking asians versus Thais in Vancouver (there do seem to be a lot of asians there).

As I understand it, the then-existing King went to Switzerland in 1932 when the absolute monarchy ended in Thailand and I think the royals lived in Switzerland until some time after the second world war.

North of Chiangrai, at Doi Tung (Doi means mountain so I'm guessing that "Tung" is the name of the mountain), the
Queen Mother (present King's mom) built a swiss chalet which presumably was built because of fond Swiss memories.
There are a lot of very well manicured gardens next to the chalet and the place is open for tourists. I'd recommend it if you're in the area although I'd note it that it often rains there because it's at a slightly higher elevation.

The Queen Mother's mountain retreat is one of the many favorite places I have in Thailand. The gardens are wonderful. I agree, it is a must-see destination, if you are in the Chiang Rai area.

[lvdkeyes]

I think the majority of Asians in Vancouver are HK Chinese. Before the UK handed back HK to China many HK people with money were afraid of what might happen when China took over so they moved to Vancouver.

[WannaGo]

lvdkeyes, on 24 September 2009 - 02:27 AM, said:

I think the majority of Asians in Vancouver are HK Chinese. Before the UK handed back HK to China many HK people with money were afraid of what might happen when China took over so they moved to Vancouver.

I remember reading something to this effect back in the late 90s.

According to the Canadian census, the Chinese population in Canada grew by 19 percent between 1996 and 2001. There were just over 1 million living in Canada in '01, which made them about 4% of the Canadian population, and about 1.2 million in the 2006 Census.

From the Census:

Quote

Close to 45% of foreign-born Canadians of Chinese origin were born in the People's Republic of China, while approximately 30% were born in Hong Kong and almost 10% were from Taiwan.

And this:

Quote

The 2006 Census reaffirmed the position of the Chinese languages as Canada's third most common mother tongue group, behind English and French.

[Beer Chang]

Perhaps it's easier for Thais to get into Switzerland than the EU?