What happens when "resident aliens" retire?

December 1, 2005 1:39 PM

When people who have worked all or most of their lives in a country in which they are not a citizen - I'm thinking of European countries like Switzerland that have very restrictive citizenship rules - are they typically eligible for government retirement benefits and state health care?
posted by bonecrusher to Law & Government (3 answers total)

Many countries have some sort of "official resident" status that isn't citizenship.

Canada has "landed immigrant" status, the US has "green cards", I assume that Switzerland has something similar.

As a Canadian landed immigrant you get pretty much all the same rights and privileges except you can't vote (and other stuff I dunno - maybe hold public office). But we're not exactly Switzerland.
posted by GuyZero at 2:18 PM on December 1, 2005

Yes, assuming you were present and working legally. No, if you weren't. Some countries also have interesting sorts of cross-border retirement plan agreements: Canadian citizen works in U.S. for many years (paying into Social Security), retires back in Canada (drawing from Canada Pension Plan) - he can get credit for the time worked in the U.S., increasing his Canadian pension. You'd have to investigate the specifics for the two countries involved.
posted by jellicle at 3:59 PM on December 1, 2005

Short answer (for Switzerland): Yes.
In Switzerland, you have to pay for the benefits you eventually get. The system is rather complicated, but explained in great detail here (.pdf). You do not have to be a citizen of Switzerland to be entitled to get the benefits - you actually just have to pay for them during your work time. There are also a number of social secruity agreements (between Switzerland and other countries).
posted by m.openmind at 7:07 AM on December 2, 2005