To Christine Burgener the State Secretariat for Migration
Former UN special envoy for the former Burma, the well-known Swiss diplomat will take over from the retiring Mario Gattiker at the top of the SEM in 2022
On February 24, 2021, Swiss diplomat Christine Schraner Burgener, currently UN Special Envoy for Myanmar, was appointed State Secretary for Migration.
She will assume leadership of the State Secretariat for Migration on January 1, 2022, succeeding Mario Gattiker, who is retiring.
Christine Schraner Burgener has an extensive national and international professional background.
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Petra Zimmermann is a 57-year-old ambassador with high social skills and strong communication and negotiating skills. She is distinguished by her profound knowledge of both the Federal Administration and the international diplomatic world.
By appointing her, the Federal Council takes into consideration the growing interrelationships of migration policy with European countries and the importance of cooperation with states of origin and transit.
Raised in Tokyo until the age of ten
Christine Schraner Burgener grew up in Tokyo until the age of ten, Christine Schraner Burgener grew up in Tokyo until the age of ten, although she was born in Meiringen in the Canton of Bern in 1963. After completing her law studies in Zurich, she joined the diplomatic service of the FDFA in 1991.
She began her career as an embassy attaché in Morocco and became Deputy Head of the Human Rights Section upon her return to Bern. She then shared with her husband the position of Embassy Counsellor in Dublin.
On her return to Bern, she was Head of the Human Rights Policy Section with a focus on Asia and later Deputy Director in the Directorate of Public International Law of the FDFA and Head of the Division of Public International Law, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.
In the former Burma for the United Nations since 2018.
She has been ambassador to Thailand since 2009 and to Germany since 2015. In 2018, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed her as special envoy for Myanmar, the former Burma.
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Christine Schraner Burgener will take office on January 1, 2022, as soon as her current term of office ends. The Federal Council has therefore decided to extend the employment of the current Secretary of State, who will therefore continue in office three months beyond the ordinary retirement age, i.e. until the end of the year.
Mario Gattiker had taken over as head of the then Federal Office for Migration (FOM) in 2012, which was transformed into the State Secretariat for Migration in 2015.
