Switzerland’s Federal Department of Justice and Police (EJPD) has appointed career migration specialist Manuela Ernst as the new Deputy Director of the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) and head of its pivotal Directorate for Immigration and Integration. The decision, announced in Bern on 23 September 2026 and effective 1 March 2027, places Ernst at the helm of the unit that designs and implements Switzerland’s labour-migration quotas, work-permit policy, integration programmes and bilateral mobility accords. Ernst joined the then Federal Office for Migration in 2008 and has since held senior roles in asylum processing, returns, and international cooperation. Her overseas assignments with UN agencies in Serbia, Kenya and Iraq give her a rare mix of operational and diplomatic experience that Swiss officials say is “crucial” as Europe prepares for the launch of the EU Entry/Exit System (EES) and ETIAS travel authorisation, both of which Switzerland must implement as a Schengen-associated state. Corporate mobility managers can expect continuity rather than upheaval: Ernst has been closely involved in drafting the 2024–2028 labour-market forecast that underpins Switzerland’s annual quota for non-EU/EFTA specialists (currently 8 500 permits). Nevertheless, observers predict that her humanitarian background will translate into a firmer emphasis on integration metrics – language acquisition, skills recognition and family-reunification processing times – when next year’s Federal Council report on the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act is finalised. Practical takeaway for employers: the appointment signals that Bern will keep its highly selective, skills-first admissions model but may ask cantons to devote extra resources to post-arrival integration. HR teams should therefore budget adequate lead-time for canton-level labour-market tests and expect more rigorous follow-up on integration obligations such as language-course attendance and housing. Companies running large intra-EU rotational programmes will also want to monitor how Ernst’s unit coordinates with the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security on digital guest-registration (planned for Q2 2027).
Source: EJPD press release
