I read in the newspaper, Tages Anzeiger, today, that the national unemployment rate for Switzerland has fallen to 2.7% and my first reaction was, “Have you ever read more BS than this right here?”
2.7%, really?
“Of the reported eight million, three hundred and seventy-two thousand people living in Switzerland, am I to believe that only 226,044 are unemployed?”
With this number calculating for every young and old person, men, women and children, the published 2.7% is either a lie, a figure to acclaim national false pride or one accounting only to Swiss-born individuals.
As an Ausländer (foreigner), who have lived and relentlessly sought jobs in Switzerland, years at a time, without success, I felt as if it is my duty not to only challenge the published 2.7% unemployment rate, but to highlight a hidden fact, that if this number is indeed true, then foreigners such as myself are not being counted as a part of the Swiss population.
Switzerland’s employment opportunities are as much in existence as the prejudicial gateways to reach them; in other words, jobs are available in Switzerland, but not to everyone, despite being qualified or unqualified.
The labour market in Switzerland might be regulated by Swiss laws and its government, but it is controlled by business owners and private boards; therefore, it is not only the political monopoly which denies qualified foreigners of suitable employment, but it is the mindset of the people, who resides in Switzerland.
And although the Swiss social service and its welfare provisions could be considered a consolation, in Switzerland, where 99% of government aid recipients are Ausländers, it is also a transparent view that a serious bias exist in the Swiss labour market.
Qualified foreigners, such as myself, of colour are ridiculed when an application for a job matching our educational qualification is submitted. We are rejected 99.9% of the time without reasons and the other 0.01%, we are noted as overqualified; either way, we will never get the job.
Most educated Black foreigners are denied suitable jobs and are forced to settle for menial employments, not because other jobs aren’t available, but because it is a great part of the Swiss labour market’s culture that Ausländers, especially Blacks, are only good for unskilled work, such as cleaning.
In Switzerland, if one should look closely, there is an employment tier system, which is blatantly structured by prejudice and some levels of racism.
The tier from an up to down direction is colour graded from white skin to black skin, so you will find the whitest of Whites at the top jobs and the blackest of Blacks at the bottom jobs; these positions equally reflects cleanliness of work and pay grades.
Interestingly, this bias has extended its way into the welfare support system of Switzerland too. In most cases, when an individual is being financially supported by the Swiss government, it is usually required that the recipient participates in a work integration.
Work integration is only a decorative term for slave labour, where the individual works 70% to 100%, doing actual work, but receives no more than a third of what the job would pay in a normal situation.
The bias can be seen where different job sectors, from recycling garbage to being in an office environment, are included in the integrational program; again, placements in these sectors are colour graded, without an income difference.
With these acquired findings, I challenge the Tages Anzeiger and any individual or organization to prove different.