Migration and employment | MIGE

Seminar for specialists and executives (SSC)

Ensuring that migrants have access to employment is one of the biggest challenges in managing multicultural societies. Indeed, being in work is a key element of any integration process. Nevertheless, many statistics have shown that integrating migrants into the job market can be problematic.

In Switzerland, as elsewhere in Europe, foreign nationals are over-represented among the beneficiaries of the main social security programmes and demonstrate relatively low rates of employment. This is due to several factors, including a lack of vocational training, the non-recognition of foreign diplomas, the lack of a professional network and employer discrimination.

This seminar will begin by attempting to understand the reasons for the disadvantages that migrants experience in the job market. It will go on to cover the instruments that can be used to deal with this situation, notably measures to reintegrate migrants into the job market and recruitment practices. We will focus mainly on promising solutions developed in Switzerland and abroad, and we will analyse the obstacles to successful integration.

Finally, the course will also investigate the problems surrounding the integration of the most vulnerable immigrant populations, such as refugees and asylum seekers.

• Understand the situation facing migrants in the job market
• Become more knowledgeable about the principal aspects of employment law as it pertains to migrants
• Learn about the principal obstacles to employment facing migrants, refugees and asylum seekers based on the latest scientific research
• Identify the most promising measures for different groups of migrants (examples of best practices)

• Professionals with responsibilities in the field of migration (State Secretariat for Migration, cantonal and city integration bureaus)
• Professionals with responsibilities in the field of employment (State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, cantonal employment offices, regional job placement offices)
• Persons responsible for the design and implementation of vocational reintegration measures within the frameworks of Switzerland’s Asylum Act, its social services and the invalidity insurance programme
• Professionals from the not-for-profit sector working in the field of migrant integration

• French is the main teaching language for this program
• More information available on the corresponding pages