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Today in Switzerland For Members

Today in Switzerland: A roundup of the latest news on Friday

Helena Bachmann
Helena Bachmann - [email protected]
Today in Switzerland: A roundup of the latest news on Friday
IT workers are highly demanded in Switzerland. Photo: Pixabay

Proposal to cut social aid for foreigners from outside the EU, the most in-demand jobs, and other Swiss news in today's brief roundup

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Federal Council debates cutting social aid for non-Europeans

As part of a draft revision of the law on foreigners and integration, the Federal Council is proposing to reduce social assistance paid to nationals of third countries.

“During the first three years following the granting a residence permit, the rate of social assistance should be lower than that applied to the native population”, authorities said.

The proposal sparked criticism from the Swiss Workers’ Welfare Organisation, whose spokesperson, Caroline Morel, pointed out that “in social assistance, the amount of support benefits is calculated according to needs and not the length of stay in Switzerland”.

“It is clear that these tightening measures will primarily affect vulnerable people such as children, people with special needs, and women”, she added.

READ MORE: How Switzerland wants to cut welfare and boost integration for non-EU citizens

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Could Switzerland and the UK merge into one country?

As Swiss President Ignazio Cassis is visiting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week, the latter emphasised that the relations between the two countries “are of enormous importance. I don't think people understand how much trade we do together, let alone the other relationships we have."

Johnson even went as far as to suggest (only half-seriously,  we assume)  that the two nations  — neither of which is part of the European Union — should merge and create a country called Britzerland.

Cassis has not responded to the idea but did concede the two nations “have many things in common and we want to further deepen these links and develop new agreements”.

These industries have most job openings

Switzerland’s employment market had rebounded well from the Covid slump, with many sectors looking for qualified workers.

Foremost among them right now are IT and catering sectors, where job vacancies increased in April by 1.5 percent over the previous month, according to new research by Michael Page recruitment agency.

This is a national figure, however. In the French-speaking regions alone, the number of jobs offered in these two sectors increased by 4.6 percent.

Within these industries, logistics and finance specialists are particularly in demand.

READ MORE: How the Swiss job market rebounded from the Covid pandemic

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Wanted: cats to wear bells and ridiculous collars

No this is not a joke.

Some Swiss researchers are clearly not very busy: one team has just wrapped up a very serious study which outfitted 31 cats with little bells and colourful collars worn around their necks to see whether these accoutrements make the bird and rodent population safer from feline attacks.

The research and advisory community SWILD, which carried out the study in collaboration with the Swiss Ornithological Institute, found that cats who wore a bell on their collar captured significantly fewer birds and small mammals. With a collar, they brought back 37 percent fewer birds than without a collar. And if they wore a collar and a bell, they brought back about 60 percent less prey altogether.

This cat didn't drag in anything. Photo: Birdsbesafe on Twitter

The two organisations are pleased about the results, though nobody knows how the cats felt about the experiment. All we know is that a cat in a collar catches no mice.

 

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