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Geneva runs out of permits for non-EU workers

Several Swiss cantons have exhausted their quotas of B permits available to specialist workers from non-EU countries wishing to work in Switzerland, it has emerged.

Geneva runs out of permits for non-EU workers
File photo: The Local

The canton of Geneva highlighted the issue in a letter to federal justice minister Simonetta Sommaruga this week, saying in a statement it was “extremely worried” that it could no longer offer the work permit to “highly qualified non-European specialists”.

Following the yes vote in the anti-immigration referendum of February 2014, the federal government reduced the number of permits available to non-EU – so-called ‘third state’ – citizens in 2015 and 2016.

Geneva’s prescribed quota for 2015 was only enough to cover the needs of third state workers because the federal migration office (SEM) was able to carry over some unused permits from 2014’s quotas – held in a federal reserve – Geneva authorities said on Wednesday.

But this year Geneva had used up its quota of B permits (a renewable residency permit) by March, it said. And now the federal reserve is all gone too.

“The Senate is therefore no longer able to respond in a satisfactory manner to work permit applications lodged by companies in our canton.”

The situation will make new companies think twice about setting up in Geneva, it said, and risks companies already established there moving to places with more lenient conditions.

It is therefore asking the federal government to “very quickly take the decision” to raise the number of available permits for non-EU citizens.

Speaking to Le Tribune de Genève, Francois Longchamp, president of Geneva’s government, said the cities of Basel and Zurich were in the same position.

The cantons will have to tell non-EU workers “to come back next year”, he said.

In 2014, Geneva had a quota of 451 B permits and 327 L permits (a short-term permit) to dish out, against this year’s allocation of 307 and 167 respectively.

While this situation hits non-EU workers specifically, it will become a wider issue should Switzerland go ahead with implementing quotas on immigrants from EU countries.

The country has until February 2017 to find a way of honouring the 2014 anti-immigration initiative – which approved quotas on all immigration – whilst maintaining its relationship with the EU, which depends upon the free movement of people.

It is not yet clear how the issue of quotas will affect British nationals coming to live – or already living – in Switzerland once Britain leaves the EU and becomes a third state country.

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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

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