Facts

The appellant, a Macedonian born in 1987, entered Switzerland in 1994 as part of a family reunification and had a settlement permit. He was convicted in 2010 of a qualified violation of the Narcotics Act and sentenced to a conditional prison sentence of 18 months. The Migration Office of the Canton of Thurgau subsequently revoked his settlement permit and expelled him from Switzerland. The appellant appealed to the Administrative Court of the Canton of Thurgau, but the appeal was dismissed.

The appellant then appealed to the Federal Court with a complaint in public law matters and, subsidiarily, with a constitutional complaint, and requested that the judgment of the lower court be set aside and that the revocation of his settlement permit be refrained from. He argued that the revocation of his settlement permit was disproportionate and did not sufficiently take into account the degree of his integration and his private interests.

Considerations

The Federal Court examined the admissibility of the appeal and came to the conclusion that the appeal in public law matters against the cantonal final decision regarding the revocation of a settlement permit was admissible. It pointed out that the settlement permit can be revoked if the foreigner has been sentenced to a long-term prison sentence or has seriously violated public security and order in Switzerland or abroad, or has endangered them.

The court stated that the revocation of the settlement permit, however, must be proportionate and that, when assessing whether this is the case, the severity of the offense and the culpability of the person concerned, the period of time that has elapsed since the offense, the behavior of the foreigner during this time, the degree of their integration or the duration of their previous presence, as well as the disadvantages threatening them and their family, must be taken into account.

The Federal Court came to the conclusion that the revocation of the appellant's settlement permit was disproportionate, as the appellant had been living in Switzerland since the age of 7, had attended school here, and had subsequently trained as a painter in the country. It also pointed out that, despite his active…