The Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) reported on Friday that 1,967,844 foreigners were living on Swiss soil as of the end of March 2015, a 2.6 percent rise compared to the same period last year.

In 2014, 39,102 people were added to the country's permanent residency database.

Emigration, on the other hand, has fallen by 0.3 percent, with some 16,892 people leaving the country between January and March this year.

Over 68 percent of foreign residents originate from EU-28 and European Free Trade Association countries, with the remaining 31.7 percent being third-country nationals.

Switzerland's permanent resident population currently stands at over 8.2 million.

A total of 44.3 percent of those who came to Switzerland during 2015's first quarter did so to partake in activities which don't fall under quota restrictions, while family reunification accounted for 30.3 percent of total influx, and 10.1 percent came for training and professional development.

Italian nationals accounted for 15.8 percent of the total number of permanent foreign residents in the country, closely followed by Germans (15.3 percent) and Portuguese (13.5 percent).

According to statistics, the unemployment rate for foreigners has slightly increased over the last year, rising from 6.5 percent in March 2014 to 6.7 percent a year later.

The autochthon unemployment rate, however, has remained at a stable 2.3 percent, below the country's average employment rate of 3.4 percent recorded in March 2015. Endit

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