Socrates 2005
SOCRATES 2005
“SOCIAL POLICY AND VULNERABLE GROUPS : IMMIGRANTS AS A CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHALLENGE”
Candice Briand Céline Glutz Isabella Cassina Laura Galhano Priska Widmer
University of Fribourg, Switzerland
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INTRODUCTION
Switzerland is a confederation. It means that our country follows a federal policy. Indeed the country is separated into 26 cantons. The country is ruled partly by the cantons and partly by the confederation. The constitution defines the role of both parts of the state. Therefore each canton has got its own constitution. Switzerland has not joined the European Union. However it maintains bilateral agreements to the members of the EU. The residence and working permits are delivered by the cantons according to a quota of foreigners they are allowed to receive. This quota is fixed by the confederation. Exception is made for the asylum seekers: their case is managed with the same law for all the asylum seekers by the Federal Office for refugees, which is established in Bern. The situation and conditions of immigrants in Switzerland cannot be understood in a standardized politic. There is no unified policy. The following chapters develop their conditions and hints at differences according to their origin.
1. THE SITUATION OF IMMIGRANTS IN SWITZERLAND
Demographic aspect
According to the historical background of Switzerland the percent of new immigrants is increasing since 1990. It has come in the year 2003 to a maximum never reached before. Immigrants represent about 20% of the resident population. That means 1 in 5 residents in Switzerland has got foreign origin.
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PROPORTION OF IMMIGRANTS IN THE SWISS POPULATION FROM 1900 TO 2003 IN %
From: Swiss Federal Statistical Office, www.bfs.admin.ch, January 2005.
More than 3 in 5 foreigners are established in Switzerland for 15 years and above or they are even born in the country. The high average of foreigners is due to a restrictive politic of naturalization (e.g. 2.6% which means 36 500 persons in the year 2002). It is interesting to notice that an initiative which proposed a harmonization of the naturalization’s politics and to make easier to get the Swiss nationality for the foreigners of the second and third generation has been recently refused by the population. Further explanation to this high number is a high rate of birth and a weak rate of death among the immigrant population1 . The immigrant populatio n is young, there are only 8 retired persons for 100 active workers against a rate of 30 among the swiss citizens. This explains why 26.5% of the children born in Switzerland are registered with foreign nationality.
1
BERTI M ., La situation des travailleurs étrangers en Suisse : Influence combinée des marchés et de la politique d’immigration, Fribourg : [s.n.], 2001
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Since the year 2000 the majority of immigrants are Europeans nationals. The majority of foreign people resident in Switzerland, above 56% comes from the nearby countries of the European union. The following table shows the distribution of immigrants according to their origin.
Origin of foreign residence (2002) % 8.8%
6.8%
Asia 3.6%
America
3.8%
10.1%
Africa Europe others
9.4%
Croatia Bosnia Macedonia
2.7%
13.3%
3.2% 3.8%
France Spain Turkey Italy
4.4% 19.8%
Serbia/Montenegro Portugal
5.1%
Germany
5.2%
From: HEINIGER M., M ORESI E., LABEAU K., (2003), Ausländerinnen und Ausländer in der Schweiz, Swiss federal statistical office.
So, the immigrants are an important work and demographic force. They rebuild the average age of the population, which is growing old and the rating of fertility.
Economical aspect
Immigrants are an economic support too. About 30% of the active working population are foreigners. They contribute to the economic growth as active workers. They are mainly represented in the sectors of catering and domestic work. If the economic situation is high, the immigrants are welcome. But, if the economy has problems, less work permits are issued or they are not renewed for the reason that Switzerland follows a politic of immigration supposed to serve the economic interests of the country.
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The aim of that politic is to avoid an excessive unemployment rate. The following table shows the distribution in the different branches.
%
Volume of work by foreigners in different branches (2002)
60 50 40 30 20 10
To tal
St ate Od in e Tr form rs an ati c sp or s t Ins se ur an rvice ce se rvi ce Te ac hin Pu A g bli c a gric dm ultu r ini str e ati on
Ca Do ter m es ing tic w Co ork ns tru cti on Ind us try El ton so cia Trad ls e er vic e
0
From: HEINIGER M., M ORESI E., LABEAU K. (2003), Ausländerinnen und Ausländer in der Schweiz, Swiss federal statistical office.
In the years of recession, the number of immigrants is lower than in the years of good economic growth. Following the federal law of residence and establishment for foreigners (art. 16), the authorities must take into account the moral and economic interest of the country and the rate of foreign overpopulation by providing permits of residence. Most of the foreign workers are wanted and employed in sectors of activities without qualification. These kind s of jobs are filled with difficulty by Swiss workers who don’t want to exercise such jobs. Furthermore the employers try to gather cheap labour.
With the increasing globalization, there is more mobility possible but salary dumping is a risk and a fact. First of all most of the immigrants as they are lead to less qualified sectors, they suffer of lower salaries. It’s even a fact that low salaries are not only due to their kind of jobs but also to their origin. Immigrants suffer a penalty of 13% in their salaries comparing to Swiss workers. A more instable permit supposes a higher salary penalty. As for African nationals, this dumping can even reach 40% 2 . This problem is mainly affecting workers coming from non European countries and is a factor of insecurity. 2
DE COULON A., FALTER J-M., FLÜCKIGER Y., RAMIREZ J. Analyse des différences de salaires entre la population suisse et étrangère, in WICKER H.-R., FIBBI R., HAUG W., ed. (2003), Les migrations et la Suisse, Résultats du Programme national de recherche « Migrations et relations interculturelles » (PNR39), Zürich, Seismo.
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Political aspect
Switzerland provides different types of residence and work permits, depending on the motive of stay in the country. The categories are as follow:
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permit B : one year substriction stay
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permit C : settlement
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permit G : person who work across the border
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permit L : short term stay (maximum 24 months)
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permit N : asylum seekers
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permit F : temporary admission for asylum seekers
The type of registration limits the rights of the immigrant person in political and economical terms for the permits A, N, F. Refugees get permit B or C. However the politics of immigration are partly legislated by the cantons. Therefore some immigrants even have the right to participate in the votes of their village/town of residence. Nevertheless they are submitted to some more conditions according to the canton’s regulation. For example in the canton of Vaud : they must be living in Switzerland for at least 10 years, registered with a permit C and established in their village/town for at least 3 years to get the right of vote.
Attitude of the population towards the immigrants, problems of discrimination
Until the 1980’s, the immigrants were seen as people who only spoke another language, they had basically similar habits as the country. But then, the migrant population arrived from the non EU countries. They are culturally more different and this is what became problematic. With the new arrivals, the foreigners are most visible. They have another culture and another way of living and they also are more recognizable on the streets. Black people or veiled women symbolize them. In fact, the problem is more the visibility of the foreigners than their number.
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Another problem is that a part of the Swiss population has the feeling that migrants come to Switzerland to get money and work. In periods of economic problems, there is unemployment and need of saving. Therefore some people are afraid of foreigners. The main topic is that they will take work places which can be offered to Swiss unemployed people. In the other way, the public opinion thinks that the immigrants, especially the refugees, are very expensive for the state. In this way, the population is angry and thinks the state gives more (money) to the foreigners than to Swiss people in difficulty and necessity.
Because of this, a part of the population has developed a xenophobic attitude toward all the foreigners. There is a political party called UDC (Central Democratic Union) which is the leader of this opinion. They call for more restrictions and severity toward foreigners who are problematic or toward the refugees who are not real refugees (like economic refugees). Today this point of view is dominant because the elder leader of the UDC, Christophe Blocher, is now the chief of the foreign office on the head of the country. But the main xenophobic expression in Switzerland is shown in the political field and not in spectacular demonstration on the streets.
As solution, the government makes restrictive laws and temporarily status. On one hand, there are harder conditions to come to Switzerland and have the right to stay here. On the other hand a lot of new kinds of refugees are temporarily accepted but the laws do not authorize them to stay definitely. As soon as the situation in their own country is more stable and safe they are put out of Switzerland.
2.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF IMMIGRATION
The foreigners bring many advantages to Switzerland. These positive aspects are mostly economical. Firstly the foreigners are flexible al bor. In spite of the laws which assure the equality they are mostly lead to accept strong work conditions if they want to have a job. So they often work in places that do not ask for high qualification and they are underpaid.
Switzerland is in need of foreign workers, both qualified and non qualified ones, to compensate the gap in pyramid of ages; the population is growing older and there are less active people. The young foreigners are welcome to complete this shortage. Actually the University of Fribourg, Switzerland
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percentage of foreign active population is higher than the Swiss one. Furthermore when they work they also pay for the social insurances. So the Swiss system adjusts the rate of foreigners according to its needs.
The disadvantages are mostly linked to the politics of refugees and the reaction on the population In the current situation on the labour market, approximately 50% of asylum seekers and refugees draw welfare benefits; for the whole of Switzerland these amounted to approximately 741 million francs in 2001 3 . Tensions created by the cohabitation of different cultures. There is a minority of foreigners who are finding difficult to integrate themselves in the society. The country has to adjust the politics in many ways: social, integration, etc.
3.
LEGAL PROTECTION AND ROLE OF WELFARE STATE
In Switzerland, the immigrants, who have a work permit, have theoretically the same rights as the Swiss. It concerns the unemployment insurance, the old age, survivor and invalidity insurance, the health and maternity insurance, work accident and illness insurance and child benefit. Social insurances are ruled by federal laws. The tasks of managing the contributions and the repartition are given to the cantons. Immigrants can even request social assistance too, but if they depend many years on that support, they can loose their work permit. The benefit of social assistance is fixed by the cantons. There are minimal norms valid for the whole system but then each canton can run his assistance. The contributions are mainly given in money, except for the asylum seekers who can be supported with natural items (food, accommodation, etc).
The unemployment insurance 4
The immigrants are an important work force. They principally work in the tertiary sector where the unemployment is especially high, so they are particularly vulnerable towards that. Their rights are at the beginning the same than the Swiss. If they come unemployed, they get 3
Federal Office for Refugees, www.asyl.admin.ch, january 2005. BOLZMAN C., T ABIN J-P., (1999), Populations immigrées: Quelle insertion? Quel travail social ?, Co-éd. IES, Genève et Cahiers de l’EESP. Lausanne. 4
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allowance during two years. After that, if they still don’t have found a job, they fall into social security. Then, their situation is evaluated and if the authorities consider that they don’t do things to find a job and if they stay a too long time on social security, their work permit can be revoked or not renewed.
The old age, survivor and invalidity insurance
Switzerland has got a system of three pillar. A federal insurance for old age, survivor and invalidity constitutes the first stage. Second stage forms the professional foresight. Third stage is an individual foresight meant to improve the life quality.
In Switzerland, the old age and survivor insurance is given to the immigrants, who stay in Switzerland after the age of retreat, as it is given to the Swiss. However, if they want to go back to their origin country, it can be a problem for some immigrants. The European nationals get their pension paid by Switzerland in their country. But if they come from a country, that doesn’t have agreement on social insurance with Switzerland, they can’t receive their rent in their country. They can only withdraw the sum of their contributions if they have contributed during at least one year. According to the statistics 5 the immigrants contribute the double they receive in benefit in the retreat. This is like that why most of theirs arrive in Switzerland between 25 and 35 years. So they don’t contribute the years necessary for a complete pensio n and their salary is often low. They request invalid insurance more often than the Swiss. So they contribute less and a shorter period of time. That is why they often have a little pension and have to go back to their country where the cost of life is lower.
The invalidity insurance can be withdrawn even by foreign nationals coming from countries members of the European Union if they have been working for at least one year in Switzerland. Nationals from other countries subjects to some conditions have this right too only if Switzerland has signed with their country an agreement on social security.
5
Office federal des assurances sociales, La Statistique de l’AVS 2004, www.bsv.admin.ch
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Following table shows the actual dynamic of the beneficiaries according to their origin.
Others Spain Portugal Germany Yougoslavia Italy Switzerland Total
The high average for Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Yugoslavian people benefiting from the invalidity insurance is due to their tendency of being employed in less or non-qualified jobs (e.g. construction industry) where the risk of work accident is higher than in more qualified sectors employing more Swiss o German nationals.
4.
RELATION TO THE EUROPEAN UNION
Switzerland is not a member of the European Union. But there are some bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the EC member states (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom). These agreements unify the different agreements Switzerland was having before to the different countries. The Swiss policy finds ever to improve the relations and the agreements with the European Union. However with the others countries, which don’t have agreements with Switzerland, no agreements are expected. That means that the non European nationals, who come from these countries are disadvantaged. This situation makes a gap between Europeans and non Europeans in Switzerland.
University of Fribourg, Switzerland
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Agreement on freedom of movement (movement of labour and social security)6 Under the agreement on freedom of movement, labourers are gradually allowed to move freely between Switzerland and the EC member states. The right to freedom of movement is also including the mutual recognition of professional qualifications and the coordination of social security.
The various national social security systems will be coordinated. Under the agreement on freedom of movement the various national social security systems will be coordinated. This does not mean, however, that they will be standardized. Each state will maintain the structure, form and scope of the benefits provided by its own social security system. The main points of the agreement are: •Swiss and citizens of an EC member state will have the same rights. •Any negative affect on the insurance cover of moving to a different country for purposes of employment and residence will be attenuated or eliminated. The agreement on freedom of movement applies to all legal regulations concerning social security. Following insurance are covered by the agreement 7 : •for old age, •for invalidity, •for surviving dependants, •for illness and maternity, •for working accidents and occupational diseases, •for unemployment, •for families. The agreement does not cover social assistance. Existing agreements between Switzerland and individual EC member states relating to social security will largely be replaced by the agreement on freedom of movement. The existing agreements will apply only to those persons not included under the agreement. This is valid in particular for persons not gainfully employed and those persons who are neither Swiss nor citizens of an EC member state. This part of immigrant population will largely be discriminated in many ways: members of the EU have priority access to the job market, in any
6
DOLESCHAL J., « La sécurité sociale dans l’accord sur la libre circulation des personnes entre la Suisse et l’UE », in Sécurité sociale : revue de l’Office fédérale des assurances sociales, Berne, 2000, p. 94-96 7
SECURITE SOCIALE SUISSE -CE, OFFRE D ’INFORMATION DE L ’OFAS : http://www.soziale-sicherheit-cheu.ch/index.php?LID=2&MID=1&SL1ID=2, 23-11-2004
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social insurance (old age, survivor and invalidity), nationals from other countries than EU may not get the same amount of rent and they are in no way protected. As there are no agreements to their countries, the benefit they can get is uncertain.
CONCLUSION
Switzerland follows the tendency of adopting a similar foreign policy as the European Union to make the movement of European citizen easier. The politic towards asylum seekers is developing more restrictions especially against the economic refugees. The standardization of the social politics among the members of the European Union leads to more fragility for the immigrants coming from third states, not member of the European Union. This creates two categories of foreigners who are not treated on equal footing. Consequences of the difference of treatment largely contributes to increase poverty of immigrant people coming from non EU countries as there is much less social security ensured and they are penalized. Therefore there is a risk of criminality emerging as this population is confronted to more difficult conditions to safeguard a minimal life level. Finally migration is a fact, a movement that can’t be stopped by adopting restrictive politics. Adjustments are necessary to balance the positive and negative aspects of immigration.
University of Fribourg, Switzerland
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
BERTI M., La situation des travailleurs étrangers en Suisse : Influence combinée des marchés et de la politique d’immigration, Fribourg : [s.n.], 2001
BOLZMAN C., TABIN J-P., (1999), Populations immigrées: Quelle insertion? Quel travail social ?, Co-éd. IES, Genève et Cahiers de l’EESP. Lausanne.
DOLESCHAL J., « La sécurité sociale dans l’accord sur la libre circulation des personnes entre la Suisse et l’ UE », in Sécurité sociale : revue de l’Office fédérale des assurances sociales, Berne, 2000, p. 94-96
HEINIGER M., MORESI E., LABEAU K. (2003), Ausländerinnen und Ausländer in der Schweiz, Swiss federal statistical office.
Federal Office for Refugees, www.asyl.admin.ch, january 2005.
Office federal des assurances sociales, La Statistique de l’AVS 2004, www.bsv.admin.ch
SECURITE SOCIALE SUISSE-CE, OFFRE D ’INFORMATION DE L’OFAS : http://www.sozialesicherheit-ch-eu.ch/index.php?LID=2&MID=1&SL1ID=2, 23-11-2004
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