No Financial Contribution
No Participation
Switzerland (SDC) financial contribution USD 237,500 -90,000 earmarked for Ten-Year Review
Switzerland (HSD) financial contribution USD 100,000 earmarked for the GFMD Support Unit
Government Team Member in RT 1.1 "Harnessing the capital of migrants to realise their potential"
Government Team Member in RT 1.2 "Migrants' enagement with public services: from basic access to co-production"
Government Team Member in RT 2.1 "South-South mobility: trends, patterns and transferable learning"
Government Team Member in RT 2.2 "Regional mobility and policy coherence to support development"
Government Team Member in RT 3.1 "Aligning governance with contemporary drivers of migration"
Government Team Member in RT 3.2 "Beyond Remittances: leveraging the development impact and promoting the transnational engagement of diaspora and migrants"
Where must I go if I feel unwell or have had an accident? Is medical treatment free in Switzerland or must I pay for it? What should I do in an emergency? What types of insurance do I need? How can I protect myself from illness? Where can I find health information in my own language?
The Swiss Hospitals for Equity Network emerged from the experience acquired during the European “Migrant -friendly Hospitals” project funded by the European Commission between 2002 and 2004 and conducted by 12 hospital institutions in 12 different countries of the European Union.
1. Context:
Foreigners make up one-fifth of the total Swiss population. They constitute a quarter of the labour force and fund a significant share of our health care system. But studies show that they are less healthy than the local population. Migrants are exposed to greater health risks and have a more difficult time accessing our health care services. Their knowledge about health-promoting behaviour is often insufficient, and they experience communication problems in their dealings with health institutions.
In 2014 the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation has started to work with a group of six individuals from the Bosnian Diaspora in Switzerland who have initiated a process to constitute an overarching diaspora platform for Bosnia and Herzegovina in Switzerland. The platform aims at connecting the fragmented Bosnian Diaspora in Switzerland with view to providing information, fostering exchange and transfer of knowledge and skills, as well as promoting initiatives of the diaspora for the development of their country of origin.
The CTRS project is an initiative of the Swiss development cooperation in Tunisia. The project interventions focus on cooperation with the Tunisian Government in line with its efforts in strengthening Tunisia’s links with its diaspora and to promoting the diaspora’s engagement in Tunisia’s national and local development.
The project aims at acknowledging the competences and skills of the Tunisians living in Switzerland with view to strengthening their contribution to the socio-economic development of Tunisia in four areas:
The SECO Start-up Fund (hereafter, the Fund) is a risk capital vehicle launched in 1997. The Fund is fully owned by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO and is an instrument of SECO’s Economic Cooperation and Development Division. The Fund is managed by FinanceContact Ltd., a Zürich-based private management company.
TawiPay (www.tawipay.com) is a pilot project that started in 2015. Its main goal is to increase transparency in the remittance channels. SECO is currently financing the establishment of the two channels Switzerland – Serbia and Switzerland – Bosnia. The project’s objective is to enable migrants/diaspora communities to reduce the cost of sending money to their home countries.
Given the dramatic situation in Syria, Swiss authorities put in place an easing of visa requirements for relatives of Syrian nationals living in Switzerland from September to December 2013 and extended the concept of family reunification beyond the members of the nuclear family (spouses and children up to age 18) to other relatives in ascending and descending order (grandparents, parents, children over the age of 18 and grandchildren).
In order to promote formalization and tackle irregularity and informality of domestic migrants' status and employment, the Swiss canton of Geneva has adopted a voucher system that can be used by employers to regularly hire domestic workers, particularly women migrant workers, and provide them with social security coverage, even if they are in an irregular migration situation.