As various Swiss media outlets have reported, under the terms of the new EU treaty, hundreds of thousands of European nationals could be eligible for permanent residency and welfare, with no strings attached. But is this really true?
In the new series of treaties that Switzerland concluded with the European Union in December 2024, Bern committed to expanding the agreement on the free movement of people.
Some reports have suggested that Switzerland would have to adopt EU’s Citizens’ Rights Directive, which allows nationals of the EU and EFTA states (Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein) to move freely within all contracting states and grants them permanent residency rights after five years of living in the country.
Having a job – or, for that matter, being financially self-sufficient – would no longer be a requirement.
In one version of this scenario, 570,000 EU/EFTA citizens could receive a Swiss C permit after five years of residency, and have access to social assistance, even if they have never been employed.
In another, as many as 690,000 Europeans would have access to these rights, with one Swiss economist Reiner Eichenberger claiming that “immigrants will demand the unconditional right to remain in Switzerland when their employment is at risk or their unemployment benefits run out. “
“Consequently, the new EU agreements will lead to more people staying in Switzerland, especially during economically challenging times,” Eichenberger said.
READ ALSO: Swiss economist warns of impact if ‘690,000’ EU nationals claim residency
Are these figures, and claims, accurate?
“This number (690,000) is not the number of new EU nationals and their family members who would immigrate to Switzerland,” Samuel Wyss, a spokesperson for the State Secretariat of Migration (SEM), told The Local.
Instead, “it is the number of EU nationals and their family members who have already been living in Switzerland for at least five years and where the EU national qualified as a worker or self-employed person during these five years,” Wyss said.
Furthermore, the study into this matter carried out on behalf of SEM by Ecoplan research institute “does not estimate how many persons would immigrate from the EU to Switzerland with the new agreement.”
And though the figures of 570,000 and 690,000 immigrants are not false, they have been taken out of context, he says.
According to Wyss, if the Free Movement of Persons Directive were introduced in 2012, 570,000 EU/EFTA immigrants would have fulfilled the conditions to receive permanent residence in 2017.
Each year from 2018 to 2021, between 50,000 and 70,000 more people met the conditions for permanent residence, adding up to 690,000 persons after five years.
That’s what those numbers really mean, Wyss said.
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What about other claims that the treaty with the EU will fundamentally change Switzerland’s immigration rules?
“Legally speaking, the new agreements change relatively little and leave Switzerland ample room to remain in control of the situation,” Francesco Maiani, professor of European Law at the University of Lausanne and expert in EU migration law and policies, told The Local in an interview.
He pointed out that while in some specific situations, the agreement would give unemployed persons access to social benefits, the alarmist forecasts “are not in line with the framework.”
In fact, workers and self-employed individuals from EU and EFTA states already have access to Swiss welfare, since they pay taxes and social insurance contributions.
As for those who don’t work, they must have sufficient resources in order to live in Switzerland; if not, “they do not have now and will not have under the agreement, the right to live in Switzerland or to access social assistance.”
“This is not an ‘exception’ negotiated by Switzerland,” Maiani said. “It is a principle that applies under the EU law, and in the EU as well.”
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And there is more
EU/EFTA nationals seeking their first job in Switzerland – that is, those who have not yet paid Swiss taxes or contributed to the social insurance system – are already, and will in be the future, excluded from accessing social assistance.
On the other hand, EU/EFTA citizens who have been working in Switzerland but lose their jobs, will have access to social assistance for a variable but limited period of time.
“The new agreements, while slightly expanding this particular right, explicitly mention Switzerland’s prerogative to carry out individual checks on whether these people are actively seeking a job with a realistic chance of obtaining it, so as to prevent any abuse of the system,” Maiani noted.
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A burden for the Swiss welfare system?
According to Maiani, under the new agreement, people who have obtained the newly-introduced permanent resident status, will indeed have access to welfare for as long as they stay in Switzerland, but this would be restricted to longtime immigrants.
“Switzerland will also be able to further restrict the acquisition of this right to workers, to strongly minimise risks of adverse consequences,” he added.
Additionally, “while the prevalent rhetoric is that EU/EFTA citizens are a risk and/or a burden for Switzerland’s welfare system, the opposite is and has been true until now: people from the European Union and EFTA are, on the whole, net contributors to the Swiss social security system.”
READ ALSO: How immigrants in Switzerland make a positive contribution
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‘We’re losing sight of the big picture’
It is clear, then, that a fair amount of misinformation has dominated the debates about the consequences of new treaties, with a lot of emphasis placed on the downsides of the deal.
Not enough has been said, however, about the positive aspects and benefits that Switzerland will draw from the agreements.
“It seems that we’re getting lost in minor details – for instance, has Switzerland obtained the right to counter some rules, or what are the exact terms of this or that clause – while losing sight of the big picture,” Maiani pointed out.
What is clear, he said, is that “Switzerland needs, for its own prosperity, a stable and lasting relationship with the EU, which includes privileged market access rights, participation in important EU programmes, as well as legal certainty for its own economic, scientific and cultural actors. This is what the package is about.”
