Switzerland will restrict immigration from European countries in an effort to limit the flow of migrants to the wealthy country, which is not a European Union member. The decision has prompted harsh criticism from the EU's foreign policy chief.
The placing of restrictions on immigration permits is aimed at
making immigration “more acceptable to society,” Geneva said. Under
a ‘safeguard clause’ in Switzerland's treaties with the EU, it
already imposes quotas on long-term residence permits for
foreigners from eight eastern European countries that joined the
bloc in 2004.
Starting next month, the Swiss government plans to apply quotas for
a year for the other 17 western and southern EU countries. The
Alpine nation plans to issue a maximum of 2,180 long-term permits
for migrants from eastern EU member-states and 53,700 for migrants
from western EU member-states.
According to the Swiss government, in recent years the number of
immigrants coming to the country for work was as large as 80,000
yearly – higher than the number emigrating. Switzerland is
currently experiencing its “biggest property boom in two
decades,” Bloomberg reported, with immigration contributing to
a house price bubble.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton slammed Geneva’s new
immigration regulations in a statement: “I regret the decision
of the Swiss Government to continue the quantitative limitations
adopted last year to the free movement of EU citizens who are
nationals of eight Member States and to extend such restrictions to
the nationals of the other Member States.”
Ashton said that the measures adopted by Geneva are “contrary to
the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons” over how they
differentiate between groups of EU member-states. She also charged
that the new regulations “disregard the great benefits that the
free movement of persons brings to the citizens of both Switzerland
and the EU.”
Swiss Minister of Justice Simonetta Sommaruga said the government
does not view the introduction of the safeguard clause as an
“unfriendly act towards the EU… It's a fact that there is unease
among the population, and it's necessary to take this unease
seriously.”