Foreign policy: SVP takes referendum against asylum education law

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On Monday, the canton council decided in second reading by 97 votes to 76 to cancel the waiting period for foreigners with status F. The no votes came from SVP/EDU and FDP.

However, the proposal cannot enter into force until further notice: before the vote, the SVP announced that it would fight the abolition of the waiting period with a referendum.

The SVP justified this step by not making Zurich more attractive as a location for asylum seekers. “Foreigners with F status are people who are obliged to leave the country and are only allowed to stay until it is possible to leave,” says Tobias Infortuna (SVP, Egg). “They will never go back if they get a grant right away.”

The SVP does not necessarily have to collect signatures for the referendum. If she participates in the canton council referendum, the signatures of her own faction will be sufficient. 45 signatures are required for the canton council referendum; the SVP faction consists of 46 canton council members.

The announcement was poorly received on the left of the council. “The SVP wants to do everything they can so that the integration does not succeed and they can continue to cook their own soup,” says Jasmin Pokerschnig (Greens, Zurich). “Everyone knows that 90 percent of people admitted temporarily stay in Switzerland for a long time.” Therefore, they must be integrated.

Thomas Forrer (Greens, Erlenbach) criticized the SVP for fueling resentment against minorities, “as befits a nationalist party.” “They want these people to wait in an asylum seeker center somewhere until they are deported back.”

The SP also recommended that the SVP faction receive tutoring from their own former federal councilor Christoph Blocher. In 2008, in his role as Minister of Justice, he introduced that temporarily admitted persons also had an “integration obligation”. “The fact that people with status F had to be integrated was Blocher’s invention,” says Alan David Sangines (SP, Zurich).

The content of the referendum is also meaningless. “Today, training costs are simply paid by communities through social assistance,” Sangines continued. By abolishing the waiting period, the canton could cover these costs from the start.

According to the Directorate of Education, abolishing the waiting period will probably cost the canton around 3 to 4 million francs per year. There are currently almost 300 people with status F who can benefit from the new scheme. (SDA)

Source:Blick