More refugees are arriving at Switzerland’s Eastern borders daily, yet Switzerland is not the primary destination for refugees travelling via the Balkans. According to the State Secretariat for Migration, the number of people seeking Swiss asylum is even expected to drop in the second half of the year. The State Secretariat for Migration projects that […]
Government makes getting a Swiss passport harder
20 Minutes. In June 2014, Swiss citizenship requirements were tightened allowing only those with permanent residency permits (e.g. a C permit) to apply, excluding anyone on a different permit such as a B permit. Yesterday the federal council issued a proposed ordinance which tightens requirements further. People receiving social assistance and a wider range of […]
Swiss immigration initiative RASA gets required number of signatures
Tribune de Genève. On 9 February 2014 a slim majority of 50.3% of Swiss voters called for an end to open immigration from European Union (EU) nations. Since then Switzerland has been engaged in difficult discussions with EU negotiators who say that Switzerland’s EU deals, which include trade, must come as a package and cannot […]
Southern European arrivals surpass German migrants into Switzerland
24heures. According to the newspaper 24heures fewer Germans and more Spanish, Italians and Portuguese are moving to Switzerland. These southern Europeans are more likely to move to Italian speaking Ticino and the French speaking lake Geneva regions. They are putting downward pressure on salaries in these places, in particular areas with high numbers of cross-border […]
UDC wants an immediate halt on asylum
20 Minutes The newspaper 20 Minutes reported that the UDC (SVP) presented a motion in the Swiss parliament for an immediate moratorium on asylum. The UDC demand follows a move in Austria last week to stop examining asylum demands to spur other EU members to make more effort to welcome refugees. The UDC’s demand includes […]
Swiss immigration vote: no impact on top university enrollments
According to Tribune de Geneve, the Swiss vote on 9 February 2014 is not hurting enrollments at top universities in Switzerland as some had predicted. The two prestigious Swiss science universities, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich, had record enrollments in 2014. Up by 1.8%, 28,537 students and doctoral […]
7-step guide to getting a Swiss passport
Reform of Swiss naturalisation rules is in the works. Parliament has passed the law but it is not yet in force. Confusion abounds so here is a guide to what has happened and where things stood at 4 April 2016. On 20 June 2014 the Swiss parliament passed a new law which changed the number of […]
How powerful is your passport?
Some passports are better than others. South Africans who travelled during the apartheid era will attest to this. To make comparisons easy, Arton Capital has created the Passport Index. The index ranks passports based on the number of countries the holder can travel to with ease. The index can be navigated via a world map, […]
Swiss immigration vote re-run
The February 2014 vote showed just how divided Swiss views on immigration are. While 50.3% voted for the proposal to stop mass immigration, 49.7% voted against it. A re-run could easily undo the result – it should be noted that an exact re-run is not possible under Swiss law. While the amendment to the Swiss […]
A 5-step guide to Switzerland’s immigration changes
On 9 February 2014, Swiss voters decided by a slim majority of 50.3% to adopt new rules on immigration. The new rules now form part of the Swiss Federal constitution. The changes are broad and short on specifics. For this reason the adoption of new legislation implementing the changes is critical for clarifying the exact scope […]
