Why non-EU expats must fight to work: American-born Cathy Johnson had a job offer in her field of study, a Swiss employer on her side ... and, ultimately, a one-way plane ticket home to Chicago. Swiss News looks at what went wrong.
| Auteur | Pattison, Margaret |
| Fonction | Politics |
Johnson was denied a work permit in the wake of a bilateral agreement giving preference to EU nationals. The agreement--the second phase of the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons between Switzerland and the EU-went into effect on June 1, 2004.
For citizens of the EU and European Free Trade Agreement countries, the main advantage is that they will be treated equally to any Swiss citizen in hiring decisions. Their potential employer no longer has to prove that a Swiss citizen cannot be found for the job. Giving preference to a Swiss is prohibited.
But it worked against Johnson. Although the new law has not changed the actual quotas in effect before, it has meant a leg-up for competitors from the EU. An employer must be able to justify hiring a non-EU foreigner over an EU citizen or a Swiss. Potential employees from outside the EU--including Japanese, Indians, Australians, Canadians, and Americans--will have a tougher time getting a work permit even if quotas don't change.
Johnson found out the hard way. After completing a degree in media, she had come to Switzerland as an 'au pair' with a temporary L-permit. When that permit lapsed, she lucked into a communications job. Her would-be employer argued that a relevant university degree and fluent English made her uniquely qualified, but she was ultimately refused because her qualifications did not persuasively set her above scads of possible applicants from the EU or Switzerland. It's a high bar against which she would not be measured if she came from the EU.
Fewer applications
Owing to the difficulty of getting approvals, the cantonal offices handling work permits have seen a drop in the number of applications for non-EU hirings since the new agreement, says Mario Tuor of the Information Service at the Federal Office for Immigration, Integration and Emigration. Exact percentages are hard to come by, as the cantons do not publish the statistics.
Tuor says the quotas themselves are not really an issue for non-EU expats as fewer than half of available B-permits are given out. The number of permits available to approved workers stands, as before the agreement, at 5,000 L-permits for non-EU nationals and 115,700 for EU nationals, and 4,000 B-permits for non-EU and 15,300 for EU nationals.
Strict enforcement
Tuor says one reason fewer permits are going to non-EU applicants, is the requirement--which only they must satisfy--to be "highly qualified." He adds that cantonal caseworkers are applying...
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