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not solve the problem in Guinea, added Gattiker
critically.
Switzerland is an exemplary country of immigration
Gattiker saw no acute need for action with respect to
Swiss migration policies. Switzerland is, behind Lux-
embourg, the OECD land with the second highest
immigration rate. “10% of the inner-European mobil-
ity is mobility into Switzerland,” specified Gattiker.
The characteristics of Swiss migration policies are a
recipe for success. This is a demand-oriented immigra-
tion, which has large advantages. In comparison with
the European average, Switzerland has, with 17%,
only half as many overqualified persons. A Nigerian
engineer driving a taxi in Switzerland is an exception
here. This is also a result of the strategy that the Swiss
Federal Council already announced five years ago,
stating that Switzerland did not want to contribute to
the global brain drain. An additional factor of success
for the Swiss migration policies is the deterrence of
salary and social dumping. There would be no accep-
tance in the population if immigration would endanger
salary and work conditions; the associated measures
with the free movement of people agreement are thus
important.
The integration potential of Switzerland is high
In the last part of his speech, Gattiker pointed to the
basis of the Swiss success story that manifests itself in
the democratic legitimacy of the migration policies.
The Swiss populace explicitly agreed to the free move-
ment of people three times, and the revised refugee
asylum law was approved by 68% of the populace.
Indeed, the Swiss integration potential is high, empha-
sized Gattiker. There are areas, however, where action
is required, he conceded, for example in the area of
social cohesion, in the use of potential that is already
in the country, and in urban and regional planning.
The Swiss state secretary for migration (SEM) made a strong
case for coordinated European policies.
Keynote: The Current Migration Policies in
Switzerland
The second part of the event focused on the Swiss
migration policies. Mario Gattiker, state secretary for
migration (SEM), explained in his presentation the
international framework of rules in which Swiss immi-
gration policies are embedded, and clarified where the
national immigration policies meet their limits.
Gattiker emphasized the importance of the European
policy frameworks – in particular the Schengen agree-
ment and the free movement of people – several times
in his talk. He himself learned two things in the nego-
tiations with the EU about the free movement of peo-
ple. First of all, the free movement of people was
effectively non-negotiable and secondly that a conflict
over the free movement of people cannot attain a
political majority.
It would be possible to cancel the Schengen agreement,
but not without broad consequences in other areas, for
example in the area of security. The free movement of
people and Schengen are reciprocal rules, continued
Gattiker, while clarifying how Switzerland also ben-
efits from the convention. He pointed to the half
million Swiss who work or study in Europe, and who
benefit, for example, from the coordination of social
insurance policies or the recognition of professional
diplomas.
Migration policy merely fights symptoms
“Migration policies will not solve the world’s prob-
lems,” reflected Gattiker. They are purely a way to
fight symptoms. As an example, he cited the largest
group of migrants that is currently landing Italy and
that are not considered refugees in accordance with the
Geneva Convention. These are people from Guinea,
one of the richest lands in the world in terms of raw
materials. The Guineans leave their country because
the creation of value from the aluminum ore bauxite,
which is mined extensively in Guinea, largely takes
place abroad. All that remains behind is a crater from
bauxite mining and a corrupt regime that pockets any
remaining assets. Switzerland has a good solution for
this problem with an accelerated procedure for pro-
cessing asylum rights. This is the reason why so few
Guineans are in Switzerland. But that obviously does
“The national migration poli-
cies have met their limits.”
Dialogue and Events
Podium