With this proposed move, Swiss citizens who have become naturalised would be able to bring over their parents from a third country, provided they have sufficient financial means to live in Switzerland without resorting to social aid or seek employment, have suitable accommodation, and integrate.

The goal of the project also aimed to eliminate the discrimination suffered by the Swiss citizens compared to their EU/EFTA counterparts regarding the admission of foreign members of their family from third countries within the framework of family reunification.

As it stands now, Swiss citizens may apply for an entry permit for their non-EU/EFTA (Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein) spouse or registered partner, as well as for their children under the age of 18, but they can’t bring their parents to live in Switzerland.

This concerns mostly the naturalised (often dual national) Swiss citizens who may want to have their third-country parents live with them in Switzerland.

Family reunification conditions are less strict for family members of Swiss citizens from EU/EFTA states — they are allowed to bring their spouse or registered partner, any children and grandchildren under the age of 18, as well as their dependent parents and grandparents.

EU/EFTA citizens living in Switzerland have the same family reunification rights as the Swiss in terms of their (EU/EFTA) relatives they can bring to Switzerland, which includes parents.

READ ALSO: How can foreign nationals bring their family members to Switzerland? 

Now, however, this will not come about.

Unknown consequences

For the Council of States deputies, parents of Swiss nationals who live outside the EU / EFTA, will not benefit from facilitated family reunification.

MPs noted that the number of additional people who would arrive in Switzerland under this measure could not be estimated, nor could the costs that this would generate for the country’s  social security scheme.

The proposal was earlier debated in the National Council, where the narrow majority of deputies vetoed the easing of the family reunification rules, qualifying them as “unpredictable and unnecessary,” especially in terms of potentially increased immigration from third countries — which has been subject to a number restrictions.

“Therefore, adopting the project without any certainty on this point would amount to taking a leap into the unknown, which is not politically defensible.”

Deputies explained their decision not to discuss the matter further by saying that “it can’t be ruled out that this change in law could generate an unpredictable flow of new arrivals in Switzerland” — which is fuelling concerns in some quarters that Switzerland is on it is on its way, due to the influx of foreigners in recent years, to becoming a country if 10 million residents.

This parliamentary decision comes at a time when the majority of Switzerland’s residents are worried about the effect that growing immigration will have on their small country.

READ ALSO: What worries the Swiss the most about rise in foreign arrivals