Downgrading of a settlement permit due to lack of integration

Facts

The Turkish national [A.] entered Switzerland together with his family in 1990 and received a settlement permit in 2004. Since 2004, he has repeatedly committed criminal offenses and received social assistance. In 2019, the Migration Office of the Canton of Solothurn initiated a procedure to revoke the settlement permit and downgrade it to a residence permit. The Administrative Court of the Canton of Solothurn dismissed [A.] 's appeal against this decision. Before the Federal Supreme Court, [A.] requested the annulment of the Administrative Court's decision. The Federal Supreme Court set aside the judgment and remanded the case for a new assessment. The Federal Supreme Court concluded that the lower court had not sufficiently clarified the facts and had not adequately justified the proportionality of the downgrading.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court stated that for the downgrading of a settlement permit granted under the old law, a current, relevant integration deficit of a certain weight under the new law (since 1.1.2019) must be present. In its assessment of proportionality, the lower court had mainly relied on criminal offenses and…