As international migration intensified and became more complex, the traditional bilateral dialogue that Switzerland conducted on migration came up against certain limits. At the national level, too, the question of migration increasingly affected many aspects of both domestic and foreign policy. It is in this context that the Federal Council (government) commissioned in 2003 a working group to identify ways of optimally using foreign policy instruments to promote a global migration policy. One result was an awareness of the need to approach migration in a spirit of partnership and to create a real platform for exchanges and coordination between all the actors involved.
With the partial revision of the Asylum Act and enactment of the new Foreign National Act in 2005, a legal basis was established that explicitly provided for the development of bilateral migration partnerships between Switzerland and selected countries. Switzerland's commitment to provide return assistance services to certain nationals was, in the case of the Balkan countries, further consolidated in the spring of 2007 with the strategy paper 'ILR Contribution to Migration Partnerships between Switzerland and the Western Balkans 2007–2010'. The Interdepartmental Steering Group on Return Assistance (ILR) – which was created in 2007 and is co-headed by the Federal Office for Migration and the SDC – is the body that decides whether reintegration programmes, structural aid projects, and projects aiming to prevent irregular migration should be carried out in partner countries.
The SDC and its cooperation offices in the various partner countries are responsible for designing projects and preparing project proposals to be submitted to the ILR. The ILR then decides how much funding will be provided to the projects to be managed by the SDC. The overall budget for structural aid projects is established by the FOM.
The ILR pursues three objectives in regards to the migration partnerships of Switzerland:
- strengthening the migration management capacities of participating states
- preventing irregular migration by providing structural aid projects to foster social and economic development
- encouraging the voluntary return of migrants, particularly members of minority groups and vulnerable persons.
The structural aid projects that are implemented by the SDC Division Western Balkans and the Global Programme Migration and Development (Nigeria) focus on three main priority areas:
- strengthening the migration management capacities of local authorities
- social and economic development of specific population groups experiencing strong migration pressures
- reintegration services to returnees from all countries as well as migration information services.
