Zurich voters reject speedier education grants for rejected asylum seekers

Zurich retains scholarship waiting period for temporarily admitted persons Keystone-SDA

Voters in canton Zurich have rejected the idea to scrap a five-year waiting period for “provisionally admitted foreigners” before they can apply for education grants.

Just over 54% of voters rejected the idea, which was put forward by the cantonal parliament in February.

Parliamentarians said the waiting period was not necessary since 90% of such cases (“provisionally admitted foreigners” are rejected asylum seekers who are unable to return to their home country for various reasons) stay in Switzerland anyway. It would therefore make sense to train them quickly, the parliament said.

The right-wing Swiss People’s Party disagreed and launched a referendum to maintain the waiting period. It argued that Zurich should not be made even more attractive for asylum seekers: foreigners with “F” status are obliged to leave the country and should only be allowed to stay until this was possible, they said.

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The People’s Party did not have to collect signatures for the referendum; rather it opted for the so-called cantonal parliament referendum, which only requires the votes of 45 members of parliament. This was comfortably achieved by the combined forces of the People’s Party, the Federal Democratic Union, and the Radical-Liberal blocs.

Left-wing groups were in favour of removing the waiting period, as was Zurich’s cantonal government. The latter argued that it would in any case not involve a large amount of money; it estimated additional costs of some CHF3-4 million ($3.5-4.7 million) per year.

A large part of this could have been compensated for by savings in social welfare, as those affected would have been able to earn their own money after receiving an education, authorities argued.

There are currently just under 300 people living in canton Zurich who could have benefited from the scheme.

Translated from German by DeepL/dos

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