Limits renewed for eastern European job seekers
Bulgarians and Romanians will continue to have limited access to jobs in Switzerland. The government has decided to extend temporary restrictions on job seekers from these countries and keep them in place until 2016, citing stress on the jobs market.
The move means that Swiss people and immigrants already living in the country will be given preference in a job application process over Romanians and Bulgarians entering Switzerland.
The free movement of people accord allows European Union citizens to work and live in different countries. Switzerland negotiates agreements with countries individually and signed a deal with the two eastern European countries in June 2009.
The agreement allowed for a transition period, during which access to the jobs market could be restricted.
The government extended this period for the first time in May 2011. The terms of the deal state that the restrictions could be extended once again three years later for another two years. They have now made use of this provision.
Although no justification was needed the first time the restrictions were extended, they could only be extended a second time if an easing of the restrictions were to cause ‘serious disruption to the employment market, or a danger of such’.
The government has determined this to be the case, based in part on numbers from the Federal Office for Migration that quotas for B-permits for Bulgarian and Romanian citizens had been completely exhausted in the last few years.
The number of people from these two countries living in Switzerland long term rose by 18.1% last year to 15,200.
Other EU citizens wishing to stay in Switzerland for one year or longer had also been subject to similar quotas under the so-called “safeguard clause”. However, by the end of May, that clause will expire for all EU member countries and their citizens will once again have unrestricted access to the Swiss labour market.
The Swiss government is still working out how to apply voters’ decision to re-introduce quotas for immigrants from the EU, decided on in a February 9 ballot supported by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party.
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