Immigrants becoming Swiss: waiting in line for the ceremony to begin (photo: Ellen Wallace)
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The 23 October 2011 elections in Switzerland are now likely to include a right-wing popular initiative (citizen-launched vote) to limit immigration and re-negotiate the Schengen accord with the European Union.
Swiss citizens vote on several popular initiatives a year. This latest one is being launched by the UDC Swiss People’s Party, which voted 396-0 Saturday 28 May at a meeting in Einsiedeln, not far from Zurich, to protect the Swiss economy from what it sees as too great a burden imposed by foreigners immigrating into or working in Switzerland.
The UDC is known in German as the SVP.
Job quotas for frontaliers would be introduced
Frontalier, or cross-border workers are targeted as well: the initiative seeks to re-introduce quotas by country and to limit the numbers of jobs that can be held by workers who live across the border in France, Germany, Austria and Italy. Figures published 26 May show the number of cross-border workers, especially in the Geneva area, growing significantly in the first three months of 2011, after a lull.
The UDC’s declaration Saturday deplores the negative impact on the economy of immigrant workers, while nodding in passing at their contribution to the economy.
“This problematic situation is the result of the free movement of persons with the European Union, a lax approach to family regroupings, the presence of many clandestine people and the increase in the number of asylum seekers,” says the UDC declaration Saturday. “According to forecasts by the Federal Office of Statistics, the population will continue to grow massively until 2035, thanks to immigration. As many as 10 million people could soon be living in Switzerland, if the different scenarios that have been laid out are to be believed.”
Swiss natural population growth, and international immigration: the federal gov’t forecasts
Ed. note: these are part of a series of federal maps, not including one showing inter-cantonal migration. This explains the difference between total growth in cantons such as Vaud, and the sum of natural growth and international migration. Note that the figures are per thousand, so in percentages, natural growth in Vaud, for example, is 1.8 percent, compared to international immigration, which is 8.6 percent. Read more…
Canton Geneva in the distance and the city of Geneva with its jet d'eau fountain
Update 17:00 / Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Standard & Poor’s, the credit rating institution, at the end of 2010 gave the canton an AA-/stable rating. The full report, in English, was made available this week by the canton. S&P’s assessment for Geneva was mostly upbeat: “The rating on the Republic and Canton of Geneva in Switzerland reflects Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services’ view of Geneva’s very stable, predictable, and supportive institutional framework; the canton’s recent sustained solid budgetary performance; and its large debt reduction since 2006.”
S&P’s notes that while the canton has finished paying out for the losses of BCG that resulted from a mismanagement scandal in the 1990s, a weakness is its “still sizable unfunded pension liabilities, even though a reform of public pension pensions is under way”.
The forecast for Geneva is relatively bright, with a short-term dip in the tax revenues that make up the bulk of the canton’s resources, expected to fall by 13 percent in 201o compared to 2009 as the impact of the economic recession is felt. But S&P’s expects this revenue to pick up again in 2011-2012, “even if at a low pace. Despite management’s strong commitment to control costs, this expected trend in tax revenues will likely result in a slightly negative operating margin over 2010-2012.”
Source: Standard & Poor’s, reproduced with permission
Economic profile of Geneva shows wealth, higher wages, far higher than average foreign population
S&P’s report profiles the city using a rich set of statistics that include these details:
Unemployment and population growth in the Haute Savoie-Ain-Geneva-Vaud region
View of the Vaud-France border from Geneva
France and Lake Geneva region (GenevaLunch) - Although unemployment is growing in the France-Vaud-Geneva region, the most affected areas are the French border departments, says a new study published 5 October by the Cross-border Observatory.
According to the report, unemployment in the France-Vaud-Geneva region jumped from 5.6% to 7.5%; during the same period the rate reached 8.5% in the French region that borders Geneva.
The number of unemployment claims presented by workers whose last job was in Switzerland, in the French departments of Ain and Haute-Savoie, reached 6,000 in 2009; that is twice as many as the number of claims presented in 2008.
French Alps, seen from Celigny, Vaud in Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Frontaliers (cross-border workers) are said by some to be at the root of many of Geneva’s social problems, from traffic to crime to unemployment. These concerns among Geneva’s voters were reflected in last weekend’s elections to the cantonal parliament, or Grand Conseil, which gave the right-wing Mouvement des Cityoyens Genevois (MCG) an increase of 8 seats to 17, out of 100.
Le Temps asks in a lengthy article 16 October if there is any truth to the concerns that MCG raises, namely that frontaliers cause the problems of which they are accused.
Geneva, Switzerland and Annecy, France (GenevaLunch) – Annecy and Geneva will be 10 minutes closer 18 December, thanks to the new Aliane strip of the A41 North autoroute in France, which is being inaugurated today. More significant to the cross-border workers and weekend trippers who travel this route regularly, the new road should reduce frequent traffic jams.
Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) – The number of cross-border work permits for Geneva rose by 11% in 2006, to 56,929. The number has increased every year since 1998, although this year’s rise is less than in the previous two years: 14% in 2004 and 15% in 2005. Behind those basic numbers lie a curious mix of statistics: according to the TDG some 20%
