Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Young undocumented migrants gain easier access to vocational training

Beat Jans
Justice Minister Beat Jans talks to migrants employed by the "Entre deux" snack bar during a visit to various asylum-related sites in Sion last week Keystone/Cyril Zingaro

Rejected asylum-seekers and young undocumented migrants in Switzerland will have easier access to basic vocational training from June 1.

From this date, they will only need to have attended compulsory schooling in Switzerland for two years to be able to submit a hardship application for admission.

The government is also extending the deadline for submitting such an application from one to two years. The government has amended the Federal Ordinance on Admission, Residence and Gainful Employment accordingly, it was announced on Wednesday.

+ Asylum seekers face tougher approach from Switzerland

In doing so, the government was complying with a mandate from parliament. In December 2022 parliament adopted a motion by the House of Representative’s Political Affairs Committee, which instructed the government to amend the law accordingly.

Today, rejected asylum-seekers and young undocumented migrants must have attended compulsory school in Switzerland for five years before they can submit a hardship application. In 2022 a majority of parliament was of the opinion that the current regulation was too restrictive and made it more difficult for undocumented migrants to gain access to post-compulsory education.

It made little sense to exclude young, motivated adults with potential, who were already in Switzerland anyway, from vocational training, they said.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

Most Read
Swiss Abroad

Most Discussed

News

No Swiss bank in phase with environmental objectives

More

Swiss banks failing environment, says WWF

This content was published on None of the 15 major Swiss retail banks is meeting international climate and biodiversity targets, according to a ranking by WWF Switzerland.

Read more: Swiss banks failing environment, says WWF
UNRWA provides emergency assistance to just over one million Palestine refugees, or about 75 per cent of all Palestine refugees in Gaza, who lack the financial means to cover their basic food.

More

Lazzarini: no alternative to UNRWA in Gaza

This content was published on The only alternative to the UN Palestinian agency’s work in Gaza is to allow Israel to run services there, Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, told reporters in Geneva on Monday.

Read more: Lazzarini: no alternative to UNRWA in Gaza

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR