Switzerland’s retail sector would suffer major losses if the rightwing bid to drastically limit immigration is approved at the polls, Migros’ head says.
Speaking about the ‘No to 10 million’ initiative to be voted on in a referendum on June 14th, the company’s CEO Mario Irminger pointed out just how crucial immigrants are to the retail sector.
“We particularly depend on immigration,” he stressed, adding that “We need foreign workers to maintain the current level of performance.”
This stance is contrary to that of the initiative’s instigators, the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) ,which claims that the continued influx of foreigners will only serve to strain the country’s key infrastructure, such as housing, health system, public transport, and schools.
Migros is not only Switzerland’s biggest retail chain but also – with the workforce of 100,000 – the country’s largest employer.
Certain of its departments rely heavily on immigrants to carry out tasks for which no Swiss nationals can be found.
For instance, currently 60 percent of the employees at the Migros meat processing company. Micarna, are foreign nationals.
And this number even reaches 90 percent in the meat cutting plant.
“We depend on these workers, now and in the future, to fill the labour gaps,” Irminger said.
Without immigrants, on the other hand, “there is a strong likelihood that services and supply will decrease” – a development which will ultimately affect Switzerland’s consumers.
READ MORE: How will you be affected if Switzerland’s anti-immigration proposal wins
‘Workforce that our country so desperately needs’
Irminger’s alarm echos ones already sounded by the Swiss Employers Association.
In a position paper it published in February jointly with the umbrella organisation for the Swiss business sector, Economiesuisse, the association argues that “without the EU workforce that our country so desperately needs, Switzerland risks halting the development of businesses within its borders, seeing its tax revenues decline, innovation slump, and the organisation and quality of services deteriorate.”
READ MORE: What Swiss businesses and employers say about the anti-immigration proposal