Are you from outside Europe and tried to get a job in Switzerland? What has your experience been like?

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I report on the Swiss pharmaceutical industry and healthcare topics such as access to medicine, biomedical innovation, and the impact of diseases like cancer. I grew up just outside San Francisco and studied international affairs with a focus on development economics and healthcare policy. Prior to joining SWI swissinfo.ch in 2018, I was a freelance journalist and a researcher on business and human rights.

Français

Vous venez d’un pays extra-européen et avez essayé de trouver un emploi en Suisse? Quelle a été votre expérience?
中文

你是否来自非欧盟国家，并想在瑞士工作？你有着怎样的求职经历？

Switzerland relies heavily on foreign talent but there’s some evidence that the immigration system makes it difficult for companies to secure permits for the skilled workers they need to remain competitive.

While there are no quotas for workers from countries that are part of the EU and the European Free Trade Area, the situation is different for nationals from so-called third countries such as the United States, India, and China.

Are you from a third country and applied for a job in Switzerland? What has your experience like with the immigration system?

From the article Pandemic reveals Switzerland’s weak spot in securing foreign talent

From the article Non-EU graduates struggle with Swiss job access

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

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Delineo 2022-06-07 11:22

The following contribution has been automatically translated from FR.

Hello,
I have been contacted by several Swiss companies for engineering positions in the pharmaceutical sector.
As I am not a member of the European Union, all my interviews ended in "We will not be able to get you a work permit because it is very complicated, Switzerland is very restricted in terms of immigration".
I find this very unfortunate.

Bonjour,
J'ai été contacté par plusieurs sociétés Suisse pour des postes d'ingénieur dans le secteur pharmaceutique.
N'étant pas membre de l'union Européenne, tous mes entretiens se sont conclus en "Nous ne pourrons pas vous obtenir un permis de travail car cela est très compliqué, la Suisse est très restreint niveau immigration".
Je trouve cela très dommage.

Rafiq Tschannen 2021-09-25 08:34

To read the comments of the experiences foreign nationals have in Switzerland is quite embarrassing for a Swiss. I have lived and worked in 15 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean and have felt welcome and respected everywhere. To read that foreigners in Switzerland do not feel equally welcome and respected is actually quite painful. I can only say to them: sorry !

SensibleMike 2021-07-12 14:03

Reading all the comments here, the following comes to mind:

- For expats, UK and USA are great countries. Discrimination to some extent, based on all sorts of reasons - language, accent, age, gender, etc - exists probably in all countries; but you can easily see/read about the many success stories of people who have moved to UK and USA.

- In USA, people will generally judge you based on what results you can achieve, and nothing else. Cities like LA and New York are the most open to new schools of thought.

- In UK, most natives will treat non-natives with respect. It does not mean that people will always agree with everything, but generally, locals are good listeners. Respect, encourages non-natives to treat UK as their own country; where they must contribute and support.

Having lived among various cultures, and looking at how the world has changed, I would say that the old saying (something like) -

-- Ask not what the country can do for you, but ask, what YOU can do for the country

Should be changed to -

-- Ask what the country can do for YOU, first, and then if YOU like the country, do the best for that country and be happy.

Fact is, people should come first. It is the people who make or break a country. A country is an administrative grouping of people. I know some people may find that statement strange (with all the nationalism, football, motherland, etc) but truth is - for a country to be or remain "successful" in 2021 and beyond, people living in that country - with or without a local passport - must feel that they are valued for their skills and hard work. If not, they will take their brains elsewhere. And no country can exist without "brainy" people, not in 21st century.

Countries must compete for the best people, and NOT the other way around; because it is human life that is the most important.

Antonio.Rocha 2022-08-26 19:49

@SensibleMike

Very wise words, thanks Mike!

LaBelle 2021-06-26 14:12

I am a dual EU-US citizen living here 16 years, have a C permit and speak two of the national languages. I came here with my spouse who was transferred by his employer. I have two degrees and over two decades of experience in finance and law. I found work locally, even though it was a step down from what I'd done previously. But I found workplaces here to be hostile, toxic and highly political. I experienced repeated instances of mobbing and bullying and was forced to leave several roles. It's evident that the locals are very insecure, passive-aggressive, and can't stand being outperformed by foreigners at work. There is rampant discrimination -- age, sex and xenophobia -- and given the weak to non-existent labor laws, weak management and useless HR departments, any recourse is impossible. It is mind-boggling the lengths some will go to to sabotage, undermine and character assassinate another simply for being an honest, hard-working employee.

marissa-cejibo9690 2021-06-16 19:21

I'm Swiss, but all my friends are expats. Their experiences match perfectly the issues described by the people who commented and have big problems with the local government abuses.

I'm thankful I also have a French passport as we are preparing to move there. The home we bought 20 years ago now has a value almost 5 times bigger so with that money we can almost retire in France. Our children are small but speak fluent French.

Itsme_79 2021-06-14 14:31

I lived years in Switzerland. educated...law abiding... tax paying, local language speaking... Non -eu expat living with a family.

Struggled for years on an L permit even though deserved a B permit. and when the contract expires or is terminated.. you are not eligible to live any further in switzerland.
Nor have access to your unemployment insurance you paid for years.
Nor get any support from the foreigners office.

And I see less educated and qualified people making a joke of the Swiss system by evading taxes, doing drugs.. not working and breaking laws.
Maybe you guys deserve the drug addicts more... Your country and atleast the people working in the foreigners office have a tendency to make it difficult for highly educated foreigners. Now it is understandable, when education is not a priority in a family nor parents encourage it.
So having highly educated people, means the local less educated children have a stronger competition.

jeanine-gisor 2021-06-07 17:18

I'm french but I also have a Canadian passport. I was given an L permit because the gemeinde decided to use the canadian passport when I first came to Zurich. Now in Geneva they say they will use the French passport, but I have to re-start from scratch with an L permit. This discrimination is absurd. No wonder they cannot find women surgeons to come to Switzerland. I'm leaving in 2 months.

PASSERBY2 2021-06-07 12:35

I hope the Author realizes that the low number of non-Europeans in Switzerland speaks for itself.
.
It is a bit like: war is less dangerous than believed. I asked many people who been through the war and nobody of them was shot dead. ;)

juho-lapivar 2021-06-05 11:18

I'm finnish and my experience has been awful from the abuse with all the L permits to the limitations on opening bank accounts, deducting anything from taxes compared to the locals or the absurd rent termination dates. Just endless abuse.

I did not ask to come here. I was asked by my employer as they could not find top executives willing to move to Switzerland. And, you can see it in all the crazy losses Swiss companies get because they are not hiring experienced professionals with a top record of accomplishment behind them. 14 months was enough of taking this abuse. By the end of July I am leaving and heading back to Germany.

And, no, I did not come from a third world country. I'm a top qualified investment banking executive with 2 MBAs and 3 passports (finnish, danish and german).

I'm just glad I did not bring my wife and kids along. That was the smartest choice of my life.

TINA91 2021-06-02 18:48

As an EU Citizen with a postgraduate qualification and over 10 years of Media experience is hard, Switzerland and the brutal truth is they aren't bad people is just a country build on neutralization and value so they value first their own people. They are not too open about foreigners. Especially if you look different

yadgip 2021-06-01 09:28

I am Non EU, i got 16+ years of IT experience working with leading Banks. I am working as a contractor for swiss bank for almost 11 years and 5 years in Switzerland. My B permit is company and job specific it means i cant change my contracting job or company and employer have full autonomy on all compensation decision.
my wife also got similar experience and working on permanent role with Swiss bank. She has dependent B permit. I got to know that after 6 years Swiss authority does not extend our permit so we need to leave Swiss. my son attend local German school so we don't have any option to stay back but to go to Germany where they are welcoming us.

TINA91 2021-06-02 18:39

@yadgip

I agree some extent. Switzerland can be tough if you look different

jackie-pihoke 2021-06-01 09:16

I had a similar experience with most of the comments here. I was born in Indonesia out of German and Chinese parents. I chose to only take the Indonesian passport.

Since my dad was working in Switzerland as a chemist researcher I decided to come here as well. The pharma company I was working for also had offices in Switzerland and I asked for a transfer. I work in international patent law, so they helped me get the L permit and then a B permit, but they are only valid for the company I came here with.

After 9 years in Switzerland I decided that for me it is impossible to get a normal work permit or a passport. I met my husband in Germany when I was visiting my grandparents and we will move. I have a 2 year old daughter born here and twins on the way. Switzerland will not be a good place for them to grow up with all the difficulties foreigners deal with here.

I'm thankful for the country as I learned a lot in the last 9 years and the apartment I bought can now be sold for almost 3x the price due to swiss franc inflation, which will be great. I can use the money to build a brand new 300m2 home in Indonesia and basically retire and take care of my children. I will keep working part time as I do not want to lose connection with my job, but in reality I will have enough money not to need to do it.

I was lucky. Most of the women friends I made here came with their husbands and could not find jobs even after 8-10 years of constantly applying. It is a very frustrating country for a foreigner.

I'm sad for Switzerland. It would have obtained so many highly qualified people as its citizens if it did not treat all of us so badly. Instead it is facing a demographic disaster and every day it collects more and more citizens with low qualifications. I just don't get the strategic plan behind this.

Isabelle Bannerman SWI SWISSINFO.CH 2021-06-03 11:53

@jackie-pihoke

Thank you for your contribution! It's interesting to hear from someone who has lived in Switzerland for so long as well and faced these difficulties. All the best for your future!

vaquero 2021-05-31 07:25

While I haven't dealt with the Swiss immigration system, I have indeed obtained one firm offer from an excellent company, which means I am qualified in my field. One other time I applied to a position in another reputable company, I was told that while my qualifications were excellent, they couldn't consider me. It went sort of without saying that since I wasn't a EU national, let alone Swiss, my chances landing a job were almost non-existent.

MarkoMarot 2021-05-30 14:29

I was born in one of those out of Europe countries, called Serbia.

As a dentist I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get a medical office in Switzerland and I had to re-study so my degree would be accepted.

After 14 years in Switzerland and still on a B permit because I had a few months break in pay when moving from working for others to having my own cabinet, I decided that there is basically no chance for me to ever receive the Swiss passport. I've never used the social security system and other than 8 months of time in-between already signed contracts in 14 years I've always worked full time in a highly qualified job. Still, I am treated a lot worst than a refugee working as a cleaner at a fast food shop. I speak fluently German, English and French, yet I'll never received an honest treatment to ever be recognized as Swiss.

So, by the end of the year I will be moving my dentistry cabinet along with its 6 doctors and our families to Germany. I already talked with the German authorities and they are desperate and really happy to have highly qualified medical staff like us and will even cut 3 years off the 5 years period to get the German passport. They want us to feel at home and stay there, especially since all of us will come with 2-3 kids each, all more than needed in Germany.

I'm really sad to see this kind of behavior. I wanted to spend the rest of my life here, but the level of discrimination is just absurd.

Jessica Davis Plüss SWI SWISSINFO.CH 2021-05-31 09:05

@MarkoMarot

Thank you so for sharing your story and I'm sorry to hear about the challenges in Switzerland. It is interesting hear how Germany's naturalisation process is adapting to attract skilled professionals like yourself.

jackie-pihoke 2021-06-01 19:10

@MarkoMarot

Germany is happy to get highly qualified people, their young kids and generally the good amount of money they come along with as most top professionals have savings and will buy their own homes. All good for the German economy.

Switzerland prefers to lose people, savings, skills, know-how and young population.

GreeneTolstoy 2021-05-29 23:23

I had about 20 years' experience in construction and the oil industry in several counties in Africa and the former Soviet Union when I arrived in CH around 2010.

Two years later, and without a job, I left to work in Kazakhstan. Now, I am managing a small company in my home country, and we are doing well.

The reason I did not pull a job in CH, so I heard time and time again, was that I had insufficient relevant experience. How is it that I have stumbled through life?

Swiss quality is for sure, but more flexibility and less self-importance will see your country become even stronger.

Jessica Davis Plüss SWI SWISSINFO.CH 2021-05-31 20:55

@GreeneTolstoy

It's interesting to hear the perspective of someone with so much work experience as most of the stories have come from recent graduates. Thanks for sharing.

Michelle1 2021-05-28 21:14

My experience was and is rather dreadful. Years passed, I totally lost my hope in finding a job, so I am going back home as soon as my Swiss husband figures out how we can lead our lives living on separate continents.
I am an Australian with a C permit, married to Swiss... have been living here for 6 years already. At first, after arrival to CH, I was full of beans and hopes in recreating all I left behind in my country.

I worked all my life for the airline, so my numerous trials to find a job in another area (like banking, pharmaceutical, etc) failed due to no experience in these fields.
I looked at Swiss Airline as well and I had been called and invited to interviews at least 4 times a year. None of my first or even second interviews took me any further. When I asked HR for a reason for rejection, the typical answer was "We decided to take a German instead". Not Swiss, but German. I even applied as a flight attendant, but received an email where I was told that "only Swiss or EU passport holders can be accepted for the interview". So that my application had been withdrawn. Even my C permit did not help! I thought I am a permanent resident in Switzerland, but o boy I was wrong. My C permit means nothing here...

Also, I would like to add another story, my daughter's (from my first husband, aka not Swiss) job search endeavor. She came along with me to Switzerland. Because of her age, 18+ years old, she had no possibility of any family reunion visa. She decided to stay with us here and study at UNI obtaining her Master's degree. After her graduation, she found an intern job in Adeco group. Getting a transfer from a student visa to a working visa was beyond imagination... mission impossible, but we managed to organise it.
Working as an intern on a 6 month-long working visa permit in Switzerland is suicidal. I saw my daughter only after 8 pm or 9 pm. She had to stay back every day and never was paid for that extra work she was doing. Obviously, Swiss employers know that people like us will work for peanuts and will do everything. Otherwise, you are out of the country! Right?!
My daughter was under huge stress, she became skinny like a stick in one month. After finishing her internship, she decided to go back home to Australia. She had enough of that humiliation with visas and an abusive work environment. Continuing any further is just a waste of energy and effort. Finding a job for any Australian without a visa is impossible. Getting a visa without any job offer is also impossible. What do you do in this case? How? Just leave. Swiss people will never accept you anyway. You will never feel like a part of this society.

Jessica Davis Plüss SWI SWISSINFO.CH 2021-05-31 21:07

@Michelle1

Really sorry to hear what you've gone through. Really surprised to hear about that the C permit didn't help. I'm sure your point that it's difficult to get a job without a visa but also a visa without a job resonates with a lot of people.

foxefim 2021-05-28 11:31

Where do we draw the line on what outside of Europe means? Switzerland has completely different standards for the various EU countries like EU-5, EU-2, different standards for each of the non-EU countries from Sweden to Albania or Serbia. More or less, other than the original EU countries everyone else is some category of outside Europe person. This is an absurd discrimination first of all because it is completely inefficient and second of all because it is simply wrong.

Jessica Davis Plüss SWI SWISSINFO.CH 2021-05-31 21:03

@foxefim

This is a really good point. I was aware of separate quotas for certain nationalities but didn't realize the range of standards for different countries. Thanks for raising this.

Varera 2021-05-28 08:44

I did a couple of interviews and was accepted to a job in late 2007. Then it took almost half a year to get a permit B.

Since I am residing in Vaud, the process was relatively smooth, but extremely slow.

All in all, if you do not like interacting with people, CH is the best place in the world. Not my case though :-)

In USA, you get a small talk twice a day in an elevator with complete strangers. In Switzerland, you get a small talk twice a year, when your Swiss friends invite you for dinner

Mafalda 2021-05-27 20:02

Wait! I am “Swiss” because I got the passport but I was born away from Switzerland in a so called “third world country”. I came to study in Switzerland, I am more educated than any Original Eidgenosse, I am “Fachkraft”, and the “real Swiss” still discriminate me big time, as if I was a sort of dirty blood person or something weird. Let me tell you that the Swiss are the most racist people I have ever experiences. Having said that I really do not know what I am still doing here and why I am still contributing with my taxes to this country. I cannot wait to leave and pay taxes somewhere else less racist.

Michelle1 2021-05-28 21:49

@Mafalda

I would not call Swiss racists. It seems to me like they just hate everyone who is not Swiss. Sometimes I even think that they even hate each other... quietly hate each other. They love to hire non-Swiss and pay them much less money for the same job. I live near the German border and I observe how Grenze Polizei catches people who have done shopping in Germany. You can see cars stopped and searched even 10km from the border! Police sit hiding in bushes! Crazy! This summer I definitely will make a movie and put it on my Facebook. That is insane how Swiss do it to Swiss. I have never seen anything like that in my life and trust me, I had my share. Hatred to its highest level.

LoL 2021-05-27 10:59

Quotes does not work, i tried to open a company here with because as non eu who studied here i struggled to find a job so i decided to creat one, after nearly a year of paper work and simply waiting for any answer i was rejected as they said because of quote (not kidding they said they like my project but they can't, and in 2 months when year ended there were still 60 quote places in my city not filled, but going to court can grant you permit for 1 year but next year they will just say that i am not integrated enough because i went to court against Switzerland.