Please cite this paper as: Liebig, T. et al. (2012), “The labour market integration of immigrants and their children in Switzerland”, OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 128, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD Publishing OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers The labour market integration of immigrants and their children in Switzerland Thomas Liebig, Sebastian Kohls and Karolin Krause 128 1 Unclassified DELSA/ELSA/WD/SEM(2012)2 Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économiques Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 02-Feb-2012 ___________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________ English - Or. English DIRECTORATE FOR EMPLOYMENT, LABOUR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS EMPLOYMENT, LABOUR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE Unclassified DELSA/ELSA/WD/SEM(2012)2 OECD SOCIAL, EMPLOYMENT AND MIGRATION WORKING PAPERS, N° 128 THE LABOUR MARKET INTEGRATION OF IMMIGRANTS AND THEIR CHILDREN IN SWITZERLAND Thomas Liebig, Sebastian Kohls and Karolin Krause J13, J15, J21, J124, J61, J7, J8 Translations in German and Italian of the executive summary, as well as of the assessment and recommendations, are to be found in Annex 2 and 3, respectively. "This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area". English JT03315276 Complete document available on OLIS in its original format - This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of Or. English international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. DELSA/ELSA/WD/SEM(2012)2 DIRECTORATE FOR EMPLOYMENT, LABOUR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS www.oecd.org/els OECD SOCIAL, EMPLOYMENT AND MIGRATION WORKING PAPERS www.oecd.org/els/workingpapers This series is designed to make available to a wider readership selected labour market, social policy and migration studies prepared for use within the OECD. Authorship is usually collective, but principal writers are named. The papers are generally available only in their original language – English or French – with a summary in the other. Comment on the series is welcome, and should be sent to the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, 2, rue André-Pascal, 75775 PARIS CEDEX 16, France. The opinions expressed and arguments employed here are the responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD. Applications for permission to reproduce or translate all or part of this material should be made to: Head of Publications Service OECD 2, rue André-Pascal 75775 Paris, CEDEX 16 France Copyright OECD 2010 3 DELSA/ELSA/WD/SEM(2012)2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report is the eleventh in a series of reviews of the labour market integration of immigrants and their children, following reviews of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Sweden. It has been written by the International Migration Division of the OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs under the supervision of Thomas Liebig. It has been produced jointly with Sebastian Kohls and Karolin Krause. Yassine Khoudja provided valuable statistical assistance. It also includes a contribution from Etienne Piguet (University of Neuchâtel). The authors are grateful for the support and advice received from Jonathan Chaloff, Jean- Christophe Dumont, Jean-Pierre Garson, Georges Lemaître, John Martin, Stefano Scarpetta and Alfonso Sousa-Poza. A draft of this report was presented and discussed at the OECD Committee for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs on 14 October 2011. The authors thank the participants of the Committee for valuable comments. The preparation of this report would not have been possible without the support of the Swiss authorities, especially Kurt Rohner and Adrian Gerber and their respective teams from the Federal Office for Migration. The authors are also grateful to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, in particular Alain Vuille and his team, as well as Sandra Hupka-Brunner and Thomas Meyer from the University of Basel, for their co-operation and for provision of the data. Finally, the authors thank all stakeholders met during the missions to Switzerland, for their valuable information and fruitful discussions. Contact: Thomas Liebig International Migration Division Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs 2, rue André-Pascal F-75775 Paris Cedex 16 Tel. +33-1-45 24 90 68 [email protected] www.oecd.org/migration 4 DELSA/ELSA/WD/SEM(2012)2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Switzerland is among the OECD countries with the largest immigrant populations – 27% of the working-age population are foreign-born – and the issue of immigration is high on both the policy agenda and in the public debate. Given the numerous debates around this issue in Switzerland, one could be tempted to think that immigrants are less well integrated than in other countries. The review shows that overall, integration works well in Switzerland. The labour market outcomes for the immigrant population as a whole are highly favourable in international comparison. Both immigrant men and immigrant women have higher employment rates than in other OECD countries. The favourable picture is mainly attributable to the overall good labour market conditions in Switzerland and a specific mix of origin countries. The bulk of migrants (more than 60%) have come from high-income OECD countries, more than half of whom from the neighbouring countries with which Switzerland shares the same national languages. Among the other immigrants, the majority are from the successor countries of the former Yugoslavia and from Turkey. In recent years, following the gradual introduction of freedom of movement with the member countries of the European Union, Switzerland experienced an exceptionally large inflow of immigrants. About 5% of the resident population consists of recent immigrants, defined as those immigrants with less than five years of residence. Most recent arrivals have again come from neighbouring countries, in particular Germany, and these migrants tend to have highly favourable labour market outcomes by all standard indicators. Notwithstanding the overall favourable picture, less good outcomes are recorded for some migrant groups, such as, for example, immigrant women with young children. There are few integration measures for immigrant women and they often do not have access to the full range of active labour market policy tools. There are also some signs that the labour market participation of this group has declined in recent years. Another group which has low employment rates, including in international comparison, are recent humanitarian migrants, who seem to have more difficulties in the Swiss labour market now than previous cohorts of humanitarian migrants. In contrast to other countries, Switzerland does not yet have a standardised integration programme for new humanitarian arrivals, which may have contributed to the low outcomes of this group. Given the positive experiences of OECD countries with structured integration programmes targeted at labour market integration, an introduction of these in Switzerland should be seriously considered. The generally high employment rates for migrants in Switzerland have also been associated with a significant degree of over qualification for migrants with qualifications from non-OECD countries. These are strongly discounted on the Swiss labour market and there are few bridging courses available. In contrast to other OECD countries, there are also few mentorship or similar programmes in place which would provide immigrants with the necessary contacts with native-born Swiss and with employers, as well 5 DELSA/ELSA/WD/SEM(2012)2 as knowledge about labour market functioning, both of which are important for access to higher-skilled jobs. Such tools should be provided more broadly, in co-operation with employers. The federalist character of the country is clearly visible in integration policy, and different local and cantonal practices to promote integration have evolved. While this is in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity and may have contributed to tailor-made and flexible solutions for many migrants, it has also retarded the development of a federal integration policy. As a result, and in spite of considerable improvements over the past decade, the overall framework for integration is thus still underdeveloped. Federal integration policy is modest in comparison with the activities in other OECD countries, most of whom have smaller immigrant populations than Switzerland. Apart from some instruments such as basic language training financed by the Federal Office for Migration, only few integration measures directly targeted at immigrants are available throughout the whole of Switzerland. Indeed, the overall approach to integration in Switzerland is one of immigrants’ inclusion in mainstream services, rather than providing targeted measures. To tackle the shortcomings of the current system, the Confederation, cantons and local authorities have recently come forward with a number of suggestions to improve the integration framework, and committed to enhanced funding for integration. Integration measures at the cantonal level vary widely, partly reflecting the different size and composition of migrant