Ok,

So not a popular post maybe, but I want to say the Permit reduction is a good thing; We've been here for more the 10 years; this is our home but I have no job (made redundant) currently and I will use the last 21 days of unemployment benefit this month...

I wish they had made the decision in May 2009 when it was first put on the table.

I might have missed the point of the post but what has the permit reduction got to do with you?

I guess you could have put this in the complaints corner.

Less incoming "cheap" labour -> more chance of jobs for those already here.

it will miraculously bring hundreds of potential employers to his door?

It will help, at least.

Unpopular post? More like illogical.

Sorry to hear about your redundancy though.

Why is it illogical?

We are not 'cheap' labour and our positions mean the businesses we work for can expand...if my husband's work permit was not renewed, it might mean the business he works for closes his department because they have had his job advertised continuously for the past three years and he is the only person they were able to recruit to do the job...

The 'cheap' labour would be more relevant to the opening of the borders to Shengen countries...and there isn't a quote reduction there...

Because there can be other reasons why he isnt back on the job market as quickly as he likes.

I don`t think it is a good thing and it sounds a bit strange immigrants saying it is a good thing to shorten permits while having the privilage of have settled in and taking unemployment benefit. Yes, immigrants take twice as much of the unemployment benefit than the native swiss take.

No, i realy think it should not be shortend and other people should also have the chance to work in switzerland. There are stil some workers needed. The only restrictions schould aply to those citicen who dont need to fulfill the same restrictions like Swiss people must do in their country of origin.

Is it realy fair giving only aprox. 30% of the swiss population a chance to live in Switzerland and stop it of a sudden?.
It sounds selfish to me. There where several citiciens`initiatives in the 70ies to limit the immigrants to 10% and all of them did not get through.

So why should it be limited now?

First and foremost, my apologies for your redundancy and the rapidly expiring unemployment - that must be a terrible place to be. I was in a similar position several years back, and they were my most awful days. Good luck finding something - soon!

I'm new to this expat business, so please let me know if I'm wrong, but I understand that a job offered to a work permit-limited foreigner has to be offered at market rates. Also, I understand that prior to offering a job to a (non-EU at least) foreign national, the position has to first be advertised for a certain minimum period of time in Suisse.

When employers are competing for scare resources (a hard-to-find skill AND a work permit, in this case) I would think it create inflationary pressures, not deflationary pressures.

Dont kid yourself; if your husband wasn't there they would find a dozen others to do his job. If they could find somebody cheaper then they would give him the boot tommorrow.

I very much doubt it: I know what he does, and I can assure you he isn't yet another bean counter or code monkey.

This is what the law says I believe, but lets be honest it simply unenforceable; maybe they have to advertise it; but thats it. There are also ways around it. Put the boot on the other foot; If I want to get a job overseas now; I stand very little chance cause companies in other countries are looking at local candidates. Catch 22.

I think that unemployed people should be shot when they get to the end of the period covered by their unemployment insurance.

After all, they're no use to society, are they? If they're still unemployed at the end of eighteen months (or whatever), then they're little better than leeches, and deserve annihilation.

That would save the rest of us a bob or two, and be to society's overall benefit.

What do you think?

There can (could?) be other reasons, but if that is the reason you state his post is illogical, then it sounds like you have decided that is the case.

You know the key point here is settled in. I have a wife and two kids; one of my kids goes to school. Is not just about me; my job; giving some other poor sole a chance to live and work in Switzerland. What about my daughter, her education? I move, they move? If I was a young single guy I wouldn't still be here; I would gone; long gone. Do you think the company who made me redundant and moved my job overseas in effect worried about giving other immigrants a chance... no. People in todays world are sadly nothing more then a resource.
Unemployment benefit is not a privilage, its an insurance you pay for, it is not free.

I know you mean this in jest Doug, and I take that way. But I certainly feel like going postal in recent months; the principal saving grace my family, whom I would let down badly if I were to go out and shot a half a dozen of the a**eholes I have had to deal with over the past eighteen months.

Missed this post; I understand your other post now; he is your friend and you are defending him. What does he do that is so special; share it with the forum so that I can advise my kids to go into this bullet proof industry he is in.