Record immigration to Switzerland in 2022

“In 2022, 350,000 people from abroad came to Switzerland. Many were attracted by work, others had to flee, some started an education.” So it reads in NZZ Folio of July 2023. 350,000! In our small state with about 25 % of unusable land in the Alps and little free space that is continuously being paved over — for housing, schools, roads and other necessary infrastructure, not to mention the growing energy needs for 8,812 million inhabitants (end of 2022). By the way, on 31 March 2023, the “permanent resident population” of Switzerland already comprised 8,865,270 people, according to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (SFSO). This means that within three months it had already grown again by more than 50,000.
  On 21 June, the Federal Council announced that it had “adopted the key parameters for a negotiating mandate with the European Union (EU)”, which were “confidential” for the time being. It intends to adopt a negotiating mandate by the end of 2023. If we consider this intention of the Federal Council together with the immigration figures mentioned, we must bear in mind that on the side of the EU bodies, the free movement of persons is the priority agreement with Switzerland. For years now, Brussels has made no concessions to the adoption of its further development (first and foremost the EU Citizenship Directive), no matter how busily the Federal Council lists all the possible areas it would like to negotiate with the EU.¹

Some facts about immigration

• Permanent and non-permanent population: The Federal Office of Statistics (FSO) counts as “permanent resident population” “Swiss nationals having their main place of residence in Switzerland and foreign nationals who have held a residence or permanent residence permit for a minimum of 12 months or from a stay of 12 months in Switzerland”. This means in reality there are more than 8.865 million people living in Switzerland, namely additionally the foreign nationals with a short-term residence permit of up to 12 months. In 2022, according to the NZZ Folio of July, 91,145 foreigners immigrated into the “non-permanent foreign population” – quite a few of them will probably stay longer. This means that the nine-million-strong Swiss population will soon be a reality. Strangely enough, the Federal Statistical Office does not include this considerable number of short-term immigrants in its calculation of immigration. In 2022, 190,500 people immigrated into the “permanent resident population”, 21,900 of them Swiss. After subtracting emigrants, this results in a “net migration” (also called “net immigration”) of 70,100, according to the FSO. However, last year almost 10,000 more Swiss emigrated than immigrated, so that the net immigration of foreigners amounts to almost 80,000 — plus the balance of short-term residents immigrating and emigrating.
• Refugees and asylum seekers: 99,470 people came to Switzerland as refugees last year. Of these, about a quarter applied for asylum, 59 % of the applications already decided on were granted, 41 % were rejected. The other three quarters (almost 75,000) were Ukrainians who did not have to apply for asylum but were granted S protection status. Unlike refugees from other countries and continents, they are all allowed to stay here, have the right to work and other privileges. Why not the asylum seekers from elsewhere? Legal equality looks different.
• Workers: In 2022, 84,927 people immigrated to the Swiss labor market. 94 % of them come from EU/EFTA countries, that’s almost 80,000. What did the Federal Council say appeasingly in 2000, before the vote on the Bilateral Agreements I? About 8,000 a year would come from the EU to work in Switzerland. Otherwise, we could temporarily pull an emergency valve. Although the Federal Council’s figure proved to be far too low from the start – as realistically thinking citizens had warned before the vote – the emergency valve was never pulled, justified by the guillotine clause that Brussels could use to exclude Switzerland from the single market again. In fact, the EU would be cutting its own flesh, as it is particularly interested in the land transport agreement and the free movement of persons with Switzerland.

EU law before Swiss law?
Example of the Union Citizens’ Directive (UBRL)

The EU Citizenship Directive is a vivid example of how EU law would marginalise Swiss law in many areas if the Federal Council were to enter into negotiations with Brussels again. It extends the right of residence and social assistance of citizens of EU member states and their family members far beyond the rules in the Swiss-EU Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons: permanent right of residence after five years of residence for EU citizens and their family members (Art. 16), right of residence for social assistance recipients “as long as they do not make unreasonable use of the social assistance benefits of the host member state” (Art. 14), expulsion “only for serious reasons of public policy or public security” (Art. 28).² 
  Let us return to the immigration figures for the year 2022. 84,927 persons, almost all from the EU area, came to Switzerland to work here, 43,026 others immigrated as family members of gainfully employed persons (family reunification), making a total of around 128,000, and the trend is rising. 26 % of the Swiss population are foreigners today. With the adoption of the UBRL, these numbers would certainly continue to grow. Switzerland is a country with very high standards in the areas of social welfare and social insurance as well as low unemployment figures. It is understandable that many employed people and their families are drawn here. But it is also understandable that we Swiss want to limit our immigration to a reasonable level. This was the goal of the mass immigration initiative of 2014, which was approved by the people and is in the Federal Constitution, but according to the command from Brussels was never implemented by the Federal Council and Parliament.
  However, the question of whether Switzerland should adopt the EU Citizenship Directive is not only about immigration figures, it is also about the compulsion to adopt EU law. Whether the social welfare receipt of an EU citizen living here is appropriate or inappropriate, or whether a convicted criminal should be expelled or not, would no longer be decided under Swiss law by Swiss courts, but by the European Court of Justice. The provision in the Swiss Federal Constitution on the expulsion of convicted criminals (Article 121(3)), which was adopted by the sovereign, would no longer be authoritative.
  The Federal Council must not forget in its eagerness to start new negotiations with Brussels: Swiss voters will not allow the rules of the EU Citizenship Directive and other EU law to be imposed on our legal system by the EU Commission and the ECJ. We decide on our law ourselves.

New negotiations with the EU?
A look back two years

Before the Federal Council leans too far out towards Brussels, it would be useful to remember why it broke off negotiations with the EU in May 2021. Not to make the same mistake again that it wiped out two years ago for good reasons. The EU Citizenship Directive can serve as a reminder. When Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis took over negotiations with the EU on a framework agreement from his predecessor in the Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA in 2017, he described the UBRL as a “red line” that was out of the question for Switzerland. However, it soon became clear that the EU understood “dynamic adoption” to mean that Switzerland should adopt all EU law concerning market access agreements on an ongoing basis. This was particularly the case with regard to the free movement of persons. Even though the Federal Council has attempted, among other things, to restrict the application of the EU Citizenship Directive according to our understanding of the law, this could not and cannot succeed. This is because the EU, following a completely different approach, namely for the purpose of an ever closer political union, “extended the free movement of persons with the adoption of the Union Citizens Directive and linked it to the concept of Union citizenship”, according to the Federal Council in its media release of 26 May 2021. The fact that the EU showed no willingness to take into account Switzerland’s completely different understanding of the state, also with regard to the accompanying measures and state aid, was the reason why the Federal Council broke off the negotiations on 26 May 2021.³ 
  In retrospect, one must concede that the Federal Council not only rejected the adoption of three selective EU regulations, but at the same time opposed the de facto automatic adoption of EU law and its interpretation by the European Court of Justice.
  This to the Federal Council’s notebook. Why not stick to the idea that new negotiations are a wasted effort? Why not stick to the existing bilateral agreements and the 1972 Free Trade Agreement with the EU, for mutual benefit? The secret “benchmarks” for a new negotiating mandate cannot contain anything really new, and all the hustle and bustle expressed in the media release of 21 June will at best arouse new desires on the part of Brussels. Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis has experienced it enough: the “exceptions and principles for safeguarding Switzerland’s essential interests” that he wants to negotiate with Brussels meet with little understanding there. And the numerous talks that his negotiator, State Secretary Livia Leu, has held in Brussels have only resulted in her resigning her mandate due to a lack of concessions on the part of the other party.  •

¹ “Federal Council approves parameters for EU negotiating mandate”. Press release of 21 June 2023
² Directive 2004/38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States
³ Annex to the Federal Council’s press release of 26 May 2021: Institutional Agreement: Results of the talks between Switzerland and the EU on the clarification points of the Union Citizens’ Directive (UBRL), wage protection and state aid