Not all Swiss are ready to accept immigrants, who periodically become bargaining chips for politicians
Citizens of some countries living and working in Switzerland can breathe a sigh of relief, while people from others remain in limbo.
Let us recall that Switzerland has different migration rules for representatives of the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and holders of passports from so-called 'third countries', which include all others, including our compatriots from the post-Soviet space. In the first case, foreigners can freely live and work in Switzerland based on the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons, while in the second case, their ticket into the country is high qualifications, restricted by strict quotas for hiring 'non-European' specialists.
After the referendum of February 9, 2014, clouds gathered over all foreigners working in Switzerland. Confederation citizens voted for immigration limits, which actually only concern Europeans (since quotas already apply to others), but the government started by reducing the number of permits for people from 'third countries'. This decision had negative consequences for cantons dependent on highly skilled labor—they exhausted their allocated quotas long before the end of the year.
Switzerland's need—at least in some of its regions—for foreign specialists is well illustrated by the following example. In mid-October, the canton of Vaud reported that in addition to its allotted 98 B-permits and 158 L-permits, it had to request 349 and 335 permits of the respective categories from the federal reserve this year. On the pages of the local newspaper '24 heures', the canton's finance minister Pascal Broulis explained that about 1,500 people from 'third countries' work in Vaud.
A similar situation, due to the many offices of international organizations and multinational corporations on the shores of Lake Geneva, occurred in neighboring Geneva. It should be noted that these are highly qualified specialists whom companies could not find on the Swiss labor market.
Recently, the President of the Confederation spoke in favor of increasing quotas for people from 'third countries'. And the Federal Council decided: in 2017, the maximum number of permits issued should not exceed 7,500, which is an increase of a thousand compared to 2016. Cantons will be able to issue 3,000 B-permits and 4,500 short-term L-permits to specialists who are not citizens of EU or EFTA countries.
In addition, the government provided a federal reserve of 1,000 permits—500 for each category—which will be allocated to cantons that have exhausted their quota. Thus, the total number of work permits for 'third countries' has returned to the level that existed 'before February 9'.
And what about Europeans? At first glance, given the new requirements established after the vote on the Swiss People's Party initiative, they should be subject to the same rules. However, the Confederation is trying to find a solution that would limit European immigration without formally introducing quotas, in order to keep the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons in force.
As previously reported, the National Council recently supported such a 'simplified' project. And now it has become known that the 'simplified' option from Switzerland's point of view may be too 'heavy' for the European Union. This was reported by the broadcaster SRF, citing a confidential document in which Brussels lawyers discuss the details of the proposed restrictions.
However, in Switzerland itself, this issue is not yet settled. The version approved by the National Council still has to undergo discussion in the Council of States. If an agreement with Brussels cannot be reached, does this mean that European specialists will have the same rights as people from 'third countries'? In that case, 8,500 permits per year would have to be shared among everyone, unless Bern again increases quotas at the request of the cantons.