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The cantons would like to place refugees with host families themselves again. Which canton has taken in how many people and how these are now distributed proportionally to the cantons – an overview.
Allocation of the refugees – that’s what it’s all about: Actually, the procedure in federalism is clear. The Confederation assigns the refugees to the cantons, which take care of the further distribution themselves. But the large rush of refugees from Ukraine pushed the processes to their limits. For this reason, many Ukrainians have been placed with host families directly from the federal asylum centers since the beginning of March. Now the cantons want to do more of the allocation of refugees themselves.
That is why the cantons want to find host families themselves: Some cantons emphasize that the original processes would have worked well. It makes little sense for the federal government or the Swiss refugee agency to place refugees with private companies without involving the cantons, says St. Gallen government councilor Fredy Fässler. “It messes up our system when people are placed with host families without knowing what their needs are and whether there is enough school space in the community.”
So many Ukrainian refugees are in Switzerland: By Saturday, 44,366 people from Ukraine had registered in Switzerland. 38,223 of these refugees have so far received protection status S, as reported by the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM).
This is how the refugees are distributed among the cantons: Since Monday, the refugees from Ukraine have been assigned to the cantons according to the national distribution key and the number of inhabitants. This means that the larger a canton, the more people it has to take in. According to their own statements, the federal government and the cantons currently have enough places to accommodate refugees from Ukraine. Of the 9,000 beds in the federal government, around 5,000 are currently occupied, as the SEM writes.
A particularly large number of refugees live in these cantons: According to an SEM survey, Bern and Ticino each took in over 800 more refugees with protection status S than they would have to take in according to the distribution key. Eight other cantons are above the target, including Appenzell Ausserrhoden. The canton with 54,000 inhabitants has taken in twice as many Ukrainians as it should according to the distribution key.
This is why the refugees are unevenly distributed: There are various reasons for the imbalances, said David Keller, head of the asylum crisis team at the SEM, on Thursday in front of the media. One reason could be the large number of existing private accommodations, or one canton stepped in for another at short notice. In addition, many refugees are drawn to the cities. So it is not surprising that larger cantons such as Geneva, St. Gallen, Aargau or Vaud have so far taken in too few people from Ukraine according to the distribution key.
Ukrainians bring these qualifications with them: The SEM randomly surveyed which professional qualifications the refugees with protection status S have. According to Philipp Berger, head of the labor market admissions department at the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), these are “comparatively good”.
However, it cannot be assumed that everyone could be employed according to their qualification level. “We expect a certain dequalification.” According to Berger, the reason for this is the lack of language or other basic skills. Currently, more than 200 people from Ukraine have started a job in Switzerland.