This week, Switzerland’s lower house has narrowly backed a temporary VAT rise to finance the country’s new 13th month of state pension, reported SRF. Wage contributions are off the table and the National Council, Switzerland’s parliament, agreed only to lift VAT by 0.7 percentage points until the end of 2030. That vote puts an end […]
Switzerland’s housing squeeze tightens as vacancy rate hits 1%
Finding a home in Switzerland is getting harder. For the fifth year in a row the share of vacant flats has fallen, slipping to 1%. In other words, 99% of the country’s housing stock is now occupied. The broad region with the most acute crunch is Vaud and Geneva, but shortages are country wide. According […]
Switzerland’s jobless rate holds steady
Switzerland’s unemployment rate held steady at 2.7% in July 2025, unchanged from the previous month, according to data published this week by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). Adjusted for seasonal variation, the figure remained flat at 2.9%. SECO’s Directorate of Labour, noted that current joblessness is broadly in line with the Swiss labour […]
Swiss court challenges strict naturalisation policy
Switzerland’s naturalisation policy may change after a court ruling this week, reported SRF. On Wednesday, the Federal Supreme Court sided with a Turkish man whose citizenship application had been left in limbo for five years by the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) over a traffic offence committed during his application process. SEM had treated the […]
Swiss government sets out curbs on free movement
This week, the Federal Council unveiled criteria that could allow Switzerland to temporarily limit the free movement of persons from the European Union and EFTA countries, reported RTS. The work follows the newly negotiated safeguard clause, part of the broader framework governing Swiss–EU bilateral relations. Under the plan, the government will monitor a set of […]
Germany tightening borders raises ire in Switzerland
This week, Germany’s new government announced a sharp tightening of its immigration policy, reported RTS. On Wednesday, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt declared that most undocumented migrants, including asylum seekers, would be denied entry, with the exception of vulnerable groups such as children and pregnant women. The plan also includes expanded border controls. Switzerland, which shares […]
Leaving Switzerland – the other side of the migration story
Switzerland is often seen as a magnet for foreigners. Far less attention is paid to the large number that leave every year. In a typical year, roughly 90,000 foreign nationals leave, according to new data obtained by swissinfo.ch. Between 2013 and 2022, net migration averaged more than 60,000 a year, accounting for 85% of Switzerland’s […]
Reports of racist incidents up nearly 40% in Switzerland
Switzerland recorded 1,211 cases of racial discrimination in 2024, an increase of 335 compared with the previous year, according to a report published by the country’s network of anti-racism centres. The 40% annual rise is the steepest in recent years. Most incidents occurred in schools and the number of reported cases has been climbing steadily […]
10% of Swiss residence permits could be fraudulently issued
Across Switzerland, authorities are grappling with a sharp rise in forged identity documents and residence permit fraud. Investigators in Neuchâtel have uncovered a criminal network with roots in Turkey, allegedly responsible for distributing counterfeit European passports and IDs to individuals who use them to apply for residence permits to work illegally in local restaurants. So […]
Pensioners versus tenants: Zurich protests and Switzerland’s rental dilemma
Thousands took to the streets of Zurich recently to demand more affordable housing—and to air their frustration with an unlikely target: pension funds, reported SRF. Their complaint is not new but increasingly urgent. Switzerland’s pension funds are major players in the residential property market, owning around 44% of rental apartments nationwide—a sharp increase from just […]
