Switzerland has a migration problem – but not in the way you think Chip production: EU countries agree on position on billions in aid

The Swiss economy has been thriving since the corona restrictions are a thing of the past. Companies invest, customers consume. But there is a lack of people. working people.

The buzzword for this: shortage of skilled workers. Difficulties in finding qualified personnel complain from all corners of the economy. Especially in the fields of health, IT and technology.

The most recent statistic illustrating this problem is aptly named the Skills Shortage Index. It is published annually by the recruiter Adecco in collaboration with the University of Zurich. And recently it reached an all-time high.

The term skills shortage could be accused of trivializing the problem. Just as critics do with the term climate change. "Climate change" suggests that global warming is a natural, unchanging process.

The term "skilled labor shortage" gives the impression that more people simply need to be trained. “That we are looking for qualifications and not people,” says business journalist David Gutensohn.

However, there is not only a shortage of nurses and engineers, but also of less qualified personnel. There is a lack of waiters and security personnel, unskilled workers in the airport baggage basements and cleaning staff. Economically, there is no shortage of skilled workers in Switzerland, but rather of people. And currently there is no solution to the problem in sight.

Switzerland, a country of pensioners

However, the source of the problem is clear: "Demographic changes play an important role," says Yanik Kipfer of the University of Zurich. He worked on the skill deficit index.

"The baby boomers are retiring and the slow-growing generations will follow." In 2021, for the first time, more employees retired than young adults entered the labor market. "This problem will certainly not be solved in the coming years," says Kipfer.

However, a growing economy is almost inevitably dependent on a growing population. Especially in a highly specialized economy like that of Switzerland. The specter of automation, which destroys jobs, has also not materialized in the past 50 years. On the contrary.

So where will the extra staff come from?

There are two options for this: either by mobilizing one's own labor market or by migrating.

The first means, for example, a better integration of mothers or pensioners in the labor market. Boris Zürcher, head of the Labor Directorate at the State Secretariat of Economic Affairs, was skeptical about the NZZ. The relatively good wages and generous retirement benefits in Switzerland would prevent this.

Migration continues.

Switzerland, an immigrant paradise

"Switzerland has always been dependent on foreign workers," says migration researcher Gianni D'Amato. He is a professor at the University of Neuchâtel and director of the Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies. Since World War I, Switzerland had never had the population needed to quench the economy's hunger for workers.

With the transformation of Western economies into service-based societies, this problem has increased. "That's why the bilateral agreements and the free movement of people with the EU came about 20 years ago," says D'Amato. This solves a central problem: how can Europe be made a mobility area in which not only services and products can circulate, but also people? That was the question. people are lazy. They usually only go when the pressure is high enough. And especially where profit can be maximized.”

Thanks to the high wages, this has been successful so far. The statistics are impressive: twenty years ago, Switzerland had some 4.1 million employees. Today there are 5.3 million. Demography would never have allowed such growth. Three of the four newly created positions are filled by foreigners.

The tug of war for the best migrants begins

The emigration of Germans, French and Co. is now a thorn in the side of neighboring countries. Because it's no longer just little Switzerland that doesn't have enough people. Population aging is affecting all of Europe. “There will be much more competition for employees in the future,” says Yanik Kipfer of the University of Zurich.

This can already be observed today. The French ambassador recently complained in the "Tagesanzeiger" that Switzerland was poaching urgently needed health workers from the border regions. Nurses in Switzerland earned almost as much as directors in France.

Germany, a popular recruiting market for Swiss companies, is going one step further: On Wednesday, the federal government decided to make it easier for skilled workers to immigrate. An employment contract should no longer be necessary. Those with appropriate qualifications, language skills or professional experience should be admitted. This is designed to attract people from third countries.

In Switzerland, this has been very cumbersome until now. There are quotas for people from third countries. The whole process is often described by labor market experts as restrictive and bureaucratic. Larger recruitment markets such as India are therefore often not even considered.

Brain drain, in other words: the flight of human capital

However, it is not only European countries such as Germany and France that are fighting against the so-called brain drain. Emerging third countries such as India are now also fighting the brain drain.

You can hardly blame them for criticizing the unpaid departure of their workers. The loss of young and/or well-trained workers hinders economic progress in the affected regions.

The SVP has a different solution

Few political solutions have been found so far. You leave the problem to the market. The SVP is an exception.

Contrary to the prevailing opinion of business and science, she sees the cause of the shortage of skilled workers not in too few people, but in too many people. “Until the free movement of people came along, we didn't know the word shortage of skilled workers,” says SVP National Councilor Thomas Matter. Many immigrants did not work, but used the local infrastructure. “These people need help, nurses, doctors, teachers, school buildings. The shortage of skilled labor will not stop as long as the immigration spiral does not stop."

Matter and the SVP are therefore planning a new initiative that provides for measures if Switzerland exceeds certain population limits. The exact form is still open, but with 10 million Swiss, the free movement of persons and the UN migration pact are being terminated.

Matter would also prefer the quotas for the EFTA countries to be returned. Because: "If the Swiss population grows as fast in the next 20 years as it has in the past 20 years, Switzerland would not survive".

If you want economic growth, you have to settle for a 10 million strong Switzerland

The SVP is almost alone in this opinion. More common is the view that global competition for labor will increase. "A high salary will no longer be enough in the future," says Yanik Kipfer. “The whole package has to be right”.

If Switzerland fails to attract foreign workers, economic growth will no longer be possible, agrees Gianni D'Amato. “Our society functions under the premise of growth. Stagnation is not an option. Unless the whole world joins in. But that is an illusion." So if you want economic growth, you have to settle for a 10 million strong Switzerland.

In the long term, however, it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract enough people from abroad. Even the youngest and baby-richest countries are predicted to catch up demographically. The world population is expected to decline again from the middle of this century.

Whoever you want to believe this: Switzerland has a migration problem.