Immigration pressures force strategic re-think in Switzerland

In 2014, crowds gathered in front of the Federal Palace against an initiative to curb immigration. KEYSTONE

Doubts are growing about immigration in Switzerland, as demonstrated by vocal interventions in politics and business.

“I have never seen immigration come under so much pressure from right to left,” political scientist Michael Hermann told Swiss public broadcaster SRF. “It seems as if no-one has a plan anymore.”

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A rethinking process about immigration appears to be taking place across the board in Switzerland at the moment.

As the spearhead of the economy, the Swiss Business Federation Economiesuisse limited itself for years to emphasising the advantages of immigration as an indispensable prerequisite for prosperity. But this message is now apparently no longer absolute.

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“We have to realise today that immigration has been too high on average in recent years.” That’s what Christoph Mäder, President of Economiesuisse, says. “We can no longer speak out against borderless immigration, but must respect that measures are needed.”

Swiss-EU negotiations

This also has an impact on the negotiations that the Federal Council is conducting with the European Union about a future bilateral path. “If the EU actually wants a new agreement with Switzerland, it must recognise that we have a particular challenge with the current proportion of foreigners in the permanent resident population.”

Mäder hopes that the Swiss negotiating team will succeed in defining some form of protective clauses in the area of ​​immigration.

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Despite critical comments, Mäder emphasises the value of the free movement of people and bilateral agreements with the EU. Thanks to them, prosperity in Switzerland has increased. If Switzerland wants to secure prosperity, it will continue to rely on foreign workers due to demographic developments.

The Social Democrats have also been a guarantor of a strict bilateral course for years, but now parliamentarian Jacqueline Badran is also warning about the costs of unlimited immigration.

“The high level of immigration has its price, it has real costs. This has been talked about far too little up to now and is still being talked about far too little today,” says Badran. Cities will no longer be able to keep up with building schools and expanding infrastructure.

Multinational tax dumping

For Badran, however, the problem is not the free movement of people. She believes that the reason for the strong immigration in recent years is tax dumping.

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“It is all of these headquarters of large international corporations that benefit from our low taxes and are bringing more and more employees into the country.” This subsequently leads to immigration, which causes the size of the foreign population to rise sharply.

Business circles contradict this view and claim that there is no relevant evidence that shows that these companies disproportionately fuel immigration.

Many people in the Swiss People’s Party do not support the free movement of people with the EU – but parliamentarian Diana Gutjahr does. She runs a metal construction company in Romanshorn with 80 employees. Most of them are Swiss, the rest are foreigners who live in Switzerland.

She tries, whenever possible, not to bring workers from abroad to Switzerland. Gutjahr also holds other entrepreneurs accountable. Instead of always taking the easiest route and quickly hiring someone who will then come with all their children, it would be better to rely on Swiss people or on foreigners who are already here.

In her opinion, the authorities also have the opportunity to restrict immigration. Representatives of sectors with acute labor shortages, such as healthcare or the catering industry, see things decidedly differently.

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Adapted from German by DeepL/mga