Increasing number of Russians opt to stay here long-term

According to official statistics, there are some 900 people from Russian-speaking countries living here in the canton, with 692 Russian nationals in all. What it interesting is that, unlike expats from the English-speaking world, they tend to send their children to local state-run schools, not least because they are thinking of staying here more long-term.
 
One Muscovite mother, who has lived here for six years, said how she loved Zug because it was so calm, clean and safe. In fact, so enamoured was she with it that she could not imagine ever returning to her homeland. She sends her two children, one a two-year-old and the other a five-and-a-half-year-old, to a local kindergarten, and she herself, along with two other Russian ladies, attends German lessons at the Skazka Centre in Baar. It is here, too, where Russian children can attend courses in their mother tongue, so they do not forget it.
 
The supervisor at Skazka (Russian for fairy-tale), Elena Castro, explained how 80% of the 120 children who go there to keep up their Russian or attend a play-group actually go to local state schools. The 42-year-old said that English and German had become like a second mother language to them because of the wide variety of nations their parents came from. Only between 30% and 40% of children who attended Skazka were actually the offspring of two Russian parents.
 
Regardless of whether both parents are Russian or not, it seems the Russian-speaking community is very keen to integrate into Swiss society, and not least, as mentioned, by their preference to send their children to state schools. This was confirmed by Markus Kunz, who heads the Zug School Inspectorate. “While there are no concrete statistics, it is evident the Russian-speaking community is keen to send its children to state schools because they plan to stay here long-term,” he said, as he added that a recent orientation meeting was attended by some 30 parents from the Russian community.
 
“They showed much interest in our education system and asked very detailed questions for over two hours,” he said, as he also mentioned how they enjoyed the stability offered here in Zug and Switzerland as a whole, which is why they felt they might like to stay more long-term and hence send their children to local state schools, as proof of their willingness to integrate here.
 
This article in the Zuger Zeitung went on to say that there was a feeling among parents in the English-speaking community that state schools here did not enjoy the reputation local private ones did. “Though I must say here our state system here is very good,” Kunz insisted.
 
As Castro also confirmed, there was great interest for Russian parents to know exactly what was required of their children to enable them to secure a place in an academic secondary school (Gymnasium), but there was no real equivalent to a “Realschule” secondary school, neither did they have a dual vocational/academic system, which keeps all doors open to students, as in Switzerland
 
Castro, who has lived in Zug for 12 years and whose own child attends a local state school was very much familiar with all events on her child’s school calendar. Furthermore, it was through attending sporting and leisure-time activities of her child that she had go to know local parents and neighbours. She also sings in a local church choir, who have performed works by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), too.
 
One aspect some expat Russian wives are not so happy about here is the difficulty in finding a job. As in the days of the former Soviet Union, it is quite normal for women to go out to work, and not being able to find work in Zug has led some, albeit a minority, to return home.
 
One other interesting feature about Skazka is that courses in Russian geared towards non-Russian-speaking wives of Russian nationals have been introduced, to help them understand their partners better.