Switzerland: debate around an ‘immigration tax’ on foreign workers intensifies

The debate over a so-called ‘immigration tax’, applicable to companies hiring foreign workers, is growing in Switzerland. What is new is that the debate is spreading well beyond the traditional anti-immigration circles of the conservative right (SVP) to moderate liberal circles. In a position paper issued by the association of entrepreneurs of the centre-right Mitte party, Zeno Staub, former CEO of Swiss banking Vontobel, argues that “the free movement of persons cannot be continued without res