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How will Brexit impact British cross-border workers in Switzerland?

Well over 320,000 cross-border workers commute into Switzerland daily from neighbouring EU countries. Here’s how Brexit on January 31st, 2020 will impact you.

Published: 30 January 2020 20:37 CET

How will Brexit impact British cross-border workers in Switzerland?

Photo: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

With Switzerland not being a member of the European Union, British workers in the country have taken Brexit with a little less concern than many of their neighbours.

With Brexit becoming finalised on Friday, January 31st, there are however implications that must be considered – particularly for cross-border workers.

If you work in Switzerland but live in a neighbouring country, here’s what you need to know about Brexit.

If you live and work in Switzerland, we’ve prepared and published a guide for how Brexit is likely to impact you.

READ: Five things you should know if you're a cross-border worker in Switzerland

G-Permit workers

Cross-border workers will usually be conferred a right to work in Switzerland pursuant to what is known as a G-Permit. There are 325,291 G-Permit holders at last count, with permit holders mostly working in Geneva, Ticino and Basel.

As reported by The Local in November of 2019, France, Italy and Germany provide the most cross-border workers.

“The largest number — 85,100 —people came to Geneva from France, 67,800 crossed the border from Italy to Ticino, while 33,700 came from Germany and France to Basel, as the city straddles French and German borders.”

G-Permits are generally valid for a year at a time and require holders to return to their homes outside Switzerland at least once per week.

Photo: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

G-Permit workers after Brexit

The Swiss Citizens’ Rights Agreement, which comes in to replace the freedom of movement agreement after Brexit takes place, protects rights for UK citizens – including those of cross-border workers.

Therefore, the rights of cross-border workers will be protected under the Swiss Citizens’ Rights Agreement. If you are currently a British cross-border worker with a valid G-Permit, your rights will be preserved.

Workers without a G-Permit?

UK workers who have not yet exercised their rights to work as a cross-border worker may exercise this right during the transition period, provided they satisfy three conditions.

These workers must have a permanent right of residence in a neighbouring state; have had a place of residence in the neighbouring state for at least six months; and must work within Switzerland.

A comprehensive list of Frequently Asked Questions is provided here.

What about residency, health insurance and other rights in EU countries?

Obviously, a right to work in Switzerland will not in and of itself confer you with the right to live in a neighbouring country – which can lead to problems regarding residency permits as well as health insurance and other issues.

This will of course depend on the country in which you live.

The following links from The Local’s sister sites in France, Italy and Germany cover rights of British workers to reside in these countries.

READ: Brexit: What do Brits in Germany need to think about before January 31st?

READ: Brexit countdown: What do Brits in Italy need to do before January 31st?

READ: Brexit: What do Brits in France need to do before January 31st?

Furthermore, as discussed in this report, health insurance rights will depend both on your residency status and how your insurance is currently being covered.

Please discuss this and relevant issues with your health provider and employer.

Notice: As with any form of advice piece featured on The Local Switzerland, it is a guide for our readers only and does not amount to legal advice. Always seek legal advice on matters relating to immigration rights.

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With the German far right coming out on top in two state elections earlier this month, the socialist-led national Berlin government has reimposed border controls on Western frontiers that are supposed to see freedom of movement in the European Union’s Schengen zone.

The Netherlands government, which includes the party of Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, announced Wednesday that it had requested from Brussels an opt-out from EU rules on asylum, with Prime Minister Dick Schoof declaring that there was an asylum “crisis”.

Meanwhile, new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the left-wing Labour Party paid a visit to Rome for talks with Italian counterpart Georgia Meloni, whose party has neo-fascist roots, to discuss the strategies used by Italy in seeking to reduce migration.

Far-right parties performed strongly in June European elections, coming out on top in France, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to call snap elections which resulted in right-winger Michel Barnier, who has previously called for a moratorium on migration, being named prime minister.

We are witnessing the “continuation of a rightward shift in migration policies in the European Union,” said Jerome Vignon, migration advisor at the Jacques Delors Institute think-tank.

It reflected the rise of far-right parties in the European elections in June, and more recently in the two regional elections in Germany, he said, referring to a “quite clearly protectionist and conservative trend”.

Strong message

“Anti-immigration positions that were previously the preserve of the extreme right are now contaminating centre-right parties, even centre-left parties like the Social Democrats” in Germany, added Florian Trauner, a migration specialist at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Dutch-speaking university in Brussels.

While the Labour government in London has ditched its right-wing Conservative predecessor administration’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, there is clearly interest in a deal Italy has struck with Albania to detain and process migrants there.

Within the European Union, Cyprus has suspended the processing of asylum applications from Syrian applicants, while laws have appeared authorising pushbacks at the border in Finland and Lithuania.

Under the pretext of dealing with “emergency” or “crisis” situations, the list of exemptions and deviations from the common rules defined by the European Union continues to grow.

All this flies in the face of the new EU migration pact, agreed only in May and coming into force in 2026.

In the wake of deadly attacks in Mannheim and most recently Solingen blamed on radical Islamists, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government also expelled 28 Afghans back to their home country for the first time since the Taliban takeover of Kabul.

Such gestures from Germany are all the more symbolic given how the country since World War II has tried to turn itself into a model of integration, taking in a million refugees, mainly Syrians in 2015-2016 and then more than a million Ukrainian exiles since the Russian invasion.

Germany is sending a “strong message” to its own public as well as to its European partners, said Trauner.

The migratory pressure “remains significant” with more than 500,000 asylum applications registered in the European Union for the first six months of the year, he said.

‘Climate on impunity’

Germany, which received about a quarter of them alone, criticises the countries of southern Europe for allowing migrants to circulate without processing their asylum applications, but southern states denounce a lack of solidarity of the rest of Europe.

The moves by Germany were condemned by EU allies including Greece and Poland, but Scholz received the perhaps unwelcome accolade of praise from Hungarian right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Moscow’s closest friend in the European Union, when he declared “welcome to the club”.

The EU Commission’s failure to hold countries to account “only fosters a climate of impunity where unilateral migration policies and practices can proliferate,” said Adriana Tidona, Amnesty International’s Migration Researcher.

But behind the rhetoric, all European states are also aware of the crucial role played by migrants in keeping sectors going including transport and healthcare, as well as the importance of attracting skilled labour.

“Behind the symbolic speeches, European leaders, particularly German ones, remain pragmatic: border controls are targeted,” said Sophie Meiners, a migration researcher with the German Council on Foreign Relations.

Even Meloni’s government has allowed the entry into Italy of 452,000 foreign workers for the period 2023-2025.

“In parallel to this kind of new restrictive measures, they know they need to address skilled labour needs,” she said.