So, in 1999, whilst working as an expat in the beautiful, but depressingly rainy German town named Düsseldorf, I was contacted by a Swiss headhunter regarding a System Administrator's job at a huge Swiss company.
The problem then, was the need for computer-related specialists had exploded due to the then Dotcom Boom. I hold a Master in Business Informatics which I had to produce. The Swiss administration had to verify there was no unemployed Swiss specialist who would then had the priority to the position I was offered.
I always had a really neat opinion about Switzerland. Being born in neighboring France, where just wearing a French flag is seen as being extreme right, I will always love how Swiss people are proud of their own flag. Of course, I did not always feel welcome wherever I went, that's the price of being a come-from-away with a family name sounding like refugees from the recent Yugoslavian war. But I followed the rule and always found my pleasure whenever I could, and eventually gladly shared it with locals.
In 2016, after 5 years of application, I obtained my most prized "diploma": the Red Pass. I once heard some younger colleague telling me how I really was not a Swiss. I just answered him I am just Swiss enough to willingly take a gun and shoot at French soldiers, should they decide to invade my home. Even the wokest youngsters cannot argue with this.
In 2024, it looks like the Swiss educational system adapted its cursus and there now are enough locals being able to occupy the positions such as mine. Having these young students learning beside us is really nice and gratifying.
So, now, when I hear about how Musk's stance about immigration is opposed to America first, I just pray it's a contingency measure and the American system is willing to improve itself until the need for foreign help is down. I also want people to understand that sometimes, people immigrate because they LOVE WHO you are and HOW GREAT your country is.
Let us not be too hasty with the strategy currently being discussed.
Another problem, particularly with Indians, is that a HUGE amount of them have completely fake “qualifications”.
In Ireland they are brought in to replace the Irish nurses and doctors we train, who leave to get better paying jobs abroad.
Almost weekly some of these doctors and nurses from india are exposed as frauds.
Nobody asks the simple question, if they have the same qualifications as the Irish who leave, why are they not going after these high paying jobs?
Visas in most countries are a very profitable scam.
Do they really believe President Trump and a team of no more than 10 people, with 3 being civilians, don’t know the truth about the H1B program?
Thank you for this insight. I believe the Swiss model is more adequate in this matter.🙏🏻💐
Switzerland is in a unique position - the whole country is only about the size of a large town so I am not surprised to hear that it is somewhat restrictive to become a resident. Five years is a bit much though; surely they either want you or they don't and it surely should not take such a length of time to make up their minds.
Governments need to wake up to the fact that if they make legal immigration an impossible bureaucratic obstacle course then that in itself encourages illegal immigration, even for folks who want to be legal.
I always like a "thank you for this information" post. We are all both teachers and learners, helping each other.
As I understand this, the Swiss will not import someone if there is a local that can do the job, and will cancel the visa for that person if they violate the laws, lose their job, etc. Further, no visa holder can initiate "chain migration" where they bring in 40 of their closest relatives for family reunification (hah), and/or go on welfare. If you are in Switzerland, you need to be working and to not be any sort of drag on Switzerland.
If we had those policies in the USA, you would not see most people complaining.
We don't have those policies.
P.S. Please send (more) raclette. :)
All three of you are quite correct in what you have espoused...Having been through what is being done now that actually started in 2007-2008 time frame when large corporations saw a way through the quagmire of the H1B Visa Program...Politicians were paid off to change it...
WE DO NOT NEED ANYMORE H1B VISAS IN THIS COUNTRY...We need to toss everyone out who has come here on an H1B visa and/or become a citizen...the REASON: THERE ARE MORE THAN ENOUGH RETIRED, SKILLED TECHNOLOGISTS IN THIS COUNTRY TO HELP THESE COMPANIES TRAIN the US Technologist graduates.
When I first became an engineer I spent over 6 months just learning what all of us were going to be doing (petro-chemical plants, Fluor Engineering) AND using the knowledge we had acquired in the Engineering/Computer Science Collages/Unis...
So, for what it's worth, we have a VERY RICH TECHNOLOGIST BASE...
Well worded Mary.
It's not always about the money, my specialty is hard to find. I do feel H1-Bs should come with a fee and equal pay requirements to force companies to adhere to the skill side of the equation.
Many of the IT companies importing Indians are, in fact, Indian.