SHARE
COPY LINK

IMMIGRATION

Aargau sparks debate with tents for refugees

Plans by the canton of Aargau to start putting asylum seekers up in army tents from next week amid a shortage of suitable accommodation have met with mixed reactions.

Aargau sparks debate with tents for refugees
Screenshot: SRF

It’s the first time Swiss authorities are resorting to tents to deal with a lack of space in reception centres although it is not uncommon in neighbouring countries.

The Swiss army is erecting 13 tents in the canton to house around 140 young men over the summer, 20 Minuten reported online.

Aargau said that in June it had to house 276 new asylum seekers and the figure for July was expected to be similar.

Last week the Swiss government reported a big jump in asylum requests in June.

Stella Jegher of Amnesty International told the paper that if camps were to be set up it was important to have good infrastructure, protection against heat and cold, and places for people to withdraw to.

“Special consideration has to be given to young and traumatised refugees,” she said.

Swiss aid to refugees SFH said the idea was “not unreasonable” for a limited period of time.

“But no-one wants to see big tent camps like they have in Germany and Austria,” Stefan Frey, refugee organization spokesman told the NZZ online.

Frey said Switzerland had the option of using civil protection shelters, which other countries did not.

He said the canton of Aargau was a special case because of its politics being dominated by the rightwing Swiss People’s Party.

Centre-left politicians have criticised the move. “The authorities should be in the position to provide people-friendly accommodation,” SP member of the National Council Bea Heim told 20 Minuten.

Aargau was sending out a message that there was an emergency situation, but this was not the case, the Social Democrat said.

“The emergency is in Syria, Eritrea, North Africa and the Mediterranean, not here,” she said.

But one asylum seeker from Iraq who is being housed by the canton reacted positively to the idea of being put up in a tent.

“It’s unbearably hot in the asylum centre, I’d be happy to live in a tent,” Mohammed told the Tages-Anzeiger.

 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

IMMIGRATION

ANALYSIS: Will immigration to Switzerland continue to grow or could it slow?

In the past few years, an increasing number of foreigners have come to Switzerland, swelling the ranks of its population to 9 million people. Will this trend continue in the future?

ANALYSIS: Will immigration to Switzerland continue to grow or could it slow?

From a country of just 8 million people a decade ago, Switzerland’s population grew to over 9 million residents in 2023 — primarily due to more foreign nationals coming in.

“Switzerland has been in a situation of uninterrupted demographic growth for several decades, and this is explained in particular by the arrival of young migrants, who also contribute to the Swiss birth rate,” Philippe Wanner, professor at the Institute of Demography and Social Economics at the University of Geneva told The Local.

Just in the period between July 2022 and July 2023, for instance, more than 90,000 foreigners settled in Switzerland.

Now forecasts call for the population to swell to 10 million within the next decade — which has prompted the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) to collect enough signatures to launch a national vote in the near future to stop more foreigners from coming into the country.

The SVP argues that Switzerland’s infrastructure — including housing, healthcare system, and public transportation — would not be able to withstand so many more residents.

READ ALSO : Switzerland faces new anti-immigration vote 

This is based on the assumption that as many — or even more — foreigners will continue to move to Switzerland in future, attracted by salaries that are quite a bit higher than the wages they would earn for the same kind of work in their home countries.

But is there a credible scenario under which immigration will slow down?

According to Swiss demographer Hendrik Budliger, high immigration numbers in recent years “don’t necessarily mean the trend will continue.”

Certain things would have to happen at the political and economic level, however — both in Switzerland and abroad — for this scenario to become reality.

These are the main ones:

Fewer people leaving their home countries

One factor, according to Budliger, would be that other countries in Europe that are grappling with labour shortages as Switzerland is “will try to retain or bring back their workforce.”

In Italy and Portugal, for instance, “significant tax deductions are granted” to keep their workers from leaving.

“If more countries create such [financial] incentives to retain employees, Switzerland will become less attractive,” he pointed out.

Economist Manuel Buchmann agreed that  “EU nations themselves need this skilled workforce and are willing to do a lot to ensure that their nationals don’t leave the country.”

Fewer job vacancies in Switzerland

The country is suffering from an acute shortage of qualified workers — the main reason why many employers are hiring workforce from the EU and EFTA (Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein) nations.

If, however, Switzerland’s low unemployment rate should increase, or if suitable candidates can be found within the country, then companies will not recruit employees from abroad.

This is especially true as the Swiss law stipulates that a job can be offered to a foreign national only if no qualified candidates can be found in Switzerland.

Anti-immigration initiatives are accepted

In 2020, 61.7 percent of voters turned down SVP’s proposal to curb immigration from the EU.

This meant that Swiss companies could continue to recruit from those countries.

However, if voters decide to go the opposite way — for instance, by accepting the SVP’s latest anti-immigration proposal — then the government would have to implement measures to drastically curb the number of foreigners coming into the country.

READ ALSO: Why Switzerland can’t rely on foreign workers to fill its labour shortages

SHOW COMMENTS