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Swiss limit immigration from Bulgaria/Romania
Switzerland has slapped quotas on the number of immigrant workers from Romania and Bulgaria to quell a surge in numbers since borders fully opened to the two countries last year, swissinfo.ch reads.
Temporary restrictions on workers from these countries are allowed under the terms of the Swiss-EU bilateral agreement. But the move comes at a time of heightened tensions between Switzerland and the EU over the free movement of people.
On Wednesday, the Swiss cabinet said it would limit B permit visas to Romanian and Bulgarian workers to 996 over the next 12 months. The reason given was that net migration from these two countries doubled to 3,300 last year, which went against a general trend of declining immigration from the EU as a whole.
The Swiss cabinet was particularly concerned that a high proportion of workers took on seasonal work with above-average unemployment rates. This could result in immigrants working for short periods and then drawing unemployment benefits for the remainder of their stay.
Since 2009, Switzerland has gradually lifted restrictions on the movement of workers from the two EU member states. Free movement came fully into force on June 1, 2016– with a safeguard clause that temporary restrictions can be introduced under certain conditions until 2019.
Swiss-EU relations have been strained ever since a 2014 referendum to introduce quotas on immigrants to Switzerland. The vote was directly contrary to the free movement of people bilateral agreement with the EU.
Parliament has agreed on a ‘lite’ version of the 2014 referendum demands, which avoid direct quotas but push in new regulations to favour Swiss workers applying for new positions. This appears to have appeased the EU, but Swiss critics have labelled the compromise as a flagrant violation of voters’ wishes and have threatened to challenge it with a fresh referendum.
Secretary of State with Romania's Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) George Ciamba on Wednesday had a telephone conversation with Secretary of State with the Federal Department for Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Confederation Pascale Baerswyl, on the topic of the access of Romanian citizens to the Swiss labour market.
MAE points out that the Swiss official showed that the measure doesn't single out Romania, as Switzerland applied it in 2012 for new EU member state and in 2013 for other EU member states.
According to the data communicated by the Swiss authorities, June 2016 — May 2017 a number of approximately 3,900 type B permits were issued for Romanian and Bulgarian citizens, a figure that already exceeds the average threshold of the past three years, of 1,204 permits.
"Secretary of State George Ciamba voiced regret on the decision made by the Swiss side, showing that it comes in the context of a relatively small number of Romanians who applied for a type B permit over the past year and is dissonant with the contribution which the Romanian community in Switzerland — mostly highly qualified labour — has on the local labour market. The Romanian side believes that any decision regarding free movement should range within the spirit of facilitating a close partnership between the EU and Switzerland, with the aim of observing the free movement of persons and workers and non-discrimination of European citizens, values which are fundamental elements of the Agreement on Free Movement of Persons," the release points out.