Switzerland: Social welfare reductions marked for people from non-EU countries

This figure has slightly dropped by 0.5 percentage points compared to a year ago. From 2015 to 2017, it was about 8.5%. About 44,900 people from third countries received social assistance in 2022, as reported by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SEM) on Wednesday.

This amounts to a 6.7% social assistance rate. The social assistance rate of people from third countries is significantly higher than that of people from European Union countries (BE) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) living in Switzerland (2.3%).

The rate for Swiss citizens is 1.9%. Almost half of people from third countries have come from European countries that do not belong to the EU or EFTA (42.8%), followed by people from Africa (26.2%), Asia (19.9%) and America (10.8%). About 56% of them had residence permits, and 42.8% had residence permits. About 28.1% were couples with one or more children, 27.3% were single parents, 25.8% lived alone, and 9.1% were couples.

Citizens of third countries who had entered Switzerland for <x0). Work goals or education” since 2008 were almost never dependent on social welfare support in 2022 (0.2%). By contrast, the percentage for people who came as part of a family reunion was 5.3%.

In general, women have a higher social assistance risk (5.7%) than men (4.5%), especially those until the age of 54. The social welfare rate for citizens of third countries without asylum background was 5.6%, while it was 18.4% for persons with asylum background. /Okinfo. ch