Cross border workers in the middle of political havoc ahead of elections

Attacks on cross border workers

Cross border workers have been an easy target for political attacks for nay years now. Before elections, the subject is raised by parties, especially in Geneva, where one in four jobs is occupied by foreigners residing in France. At this point, the relations between Geneva and cross border workers’ community may be at its worst state ever, as warns Michel Charrat, the president of Groupement transfrontalier européen. The organization offers financial, social and legal support to foreign residents working in Switzerland. Charrat has been in charge of it for 20 years now. As the election approaches, the political attacks on cross border workers were launched by Geneva Citizens’ Movement and Swiss People’s Party, which comes as no surprise to Charrat. In his interview for swissinfo.ch, he claimed that dragging a cross border work issue to political debate is something the organization is used to. Which of course doesn’t mean it should be this way – according to Charrat rhetoric should be changed, if Switzerland don’t want to suffer damages to its economy.

Non-friendly environment

The populist party Geneva Citizens’ Movement and the conservative right party Swiss People’s Party have set up two initiatives like “Stop cross border workers” and “Geneva firsts”, respectively. Their aim is to lobby for establishing laws giving priority in employment for local people in private sector. Those parties spread a very non-friendly, if not to say toxic, environment, for cross border workers. However, Charrat claims the hostile feelings are not shared by majority of population. Charret also points out that Switzerland wouldn’t manage without workers commuting from abroad. If more than 180,000 workers ditched their job in Switzerland, it would obviously cause a disaster in operations of businesses and it is hard to imagine every job can be filled in by locals.

New laws entering into force soon

The ambient is no good for cross border workers not only because of the populist parties’ ideas but also due to new laws that soon will enter into force. From July 1st, there is implemented a policy of priority given to domestic workers, whereas Geneva soon will introduce law stating that children of residence of France who work in the region are not able to enroll in Geneva schools. According to Charrat both solutions are damaging and unfair. He claims that mass immigration initiative, as its called the law of giving priority to local workers, is not compatible with agreements made between the European Union and Switzerland. He sees it as the obstacle for commuters form abroad to re-enter the Swiss job market, not only as possibility to help locals come back from the unemployment. The system is not fair, as it treats unemployed non-commuters and domestic residents differently. Whereas the idea to ban children of French cross border workers from enrolling to Geneva schools is considered by Charrat as a scandalous decision. According to data, as much as 84% of kids residing in France and attending Swiss schools have Swiss passports. That means the law is turned at Swiss citizens.

Not an issue for other parties

Cross border workers’ issue may worry populist and conservative parties, but for others remain a secondary topic. Some political scientists claim that voters also are not that much concerned in this matter, especially since a member of Citizen’s Movement, Mauro Poggia has been in the cantonal government for four years now. Those, who are favoring giving priority to domestic workers over foreigners, have their representative in the cantonal government then.

Moreover, the prospects of a better euro swiss franc exchange rate are cloudy. Frontier workers were able to enjoy a good euro-franc exchange rate at the beginning of the year. Since then, the EUR/CHF exchange rate has been constant.