Switzerland votes to curb EU immigration

[Syt]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26108597

Swiss immigration: 50.3% back quotas, final results show

Swiss voters have narrowly backed a referendum proposal to bring back strict quotas for immigration from European Union countries.

Final results showed 50.3% voted in favour. The vote invalidates the Swiss-EU agreement on freedom of movement.

Fiercely independent Switzerland is not a member of the EU, but has adopted large sections of EU policy.

Brussels said it regretted the outcome of the vote and would examine its implications.

A Yes vote of more than 50% was needed for the referendum to pass.

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the vote has shown up traditional divisions, with French-speaking areas against the quotas, German-speaking regions divided, and the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino firmly in favour.

A Yes vote means Swiss ministers will have some tricky explaining to do in Brussels, our correspondent says.

'Huge mistake'
In a statement, the European Commission said it regretted that an "initiative for the introduction of quantitative limits to immigration has been passed by this vote.

"This goes against the principle of free movement of persons between the EU and Switzerland. The EU will examine the implications of this initiative on EU-Swiss relations as a whole. In this context, the Federal Council's position on the result will also be taken into account."

The vote comes amid increasing debate across Europe about migration and the impact of free movement of people.

Switzerland's economy is booming at the moment, and unemployment is low, but many Swiss worry about immigration.

A quarter of the eight million-strong population is foreign, and last year 80,000 new immigrants arrived.

Since 2007, most of the EU's 500 million residents have been on an equal footing with locals in the Swiss job market - the result of a policy voted into law in a 2000 referendum.

But a coalition led by the right-wing Swiss People's Party now wants to reverse this deal, saying it was a huge mistake.

Supporters of quotas believe free movement has put pressure on housing, health, education, and transport. They also argue that foreign workers drive salaries down.

But the Swiss government and business leaders say free movement is key to Switzerland's economic success, allowing employers to choose skilled staff from across Europe.

Switzerland's bilateral agreements with the EU took years of negotiation to achieve.

Our correspondent says that abandoning free movement could limit Switzerland's access to Europe's single market, where over half its exports are sold.

Analysis

This is the result the Swiss government and business leaders most feared: support for immigration quotas, by the tiniest of margins. In Switzerland the voters' word is final, and the government will now have to inform the European Union that it wants to "renegotiate" its bilateral agreement on free movement of people. But renegotiation is almost certainly not an option.

The Swiss have already had years to phase in the deal, and Brussels views free movement as integral to participation in Europe's single market. Exclusion from that market could spell disaster for Switzerland's booming economy: over half of all Swiss exports are sold in the EU. What is more, Swiss employers increasingly rely on highly qualified staff from across Europe - they believe they will lose their competitive edge if they are no longer free to employ who they like.

But the right-wing Swiss People's Party is jubilant that its claims of overcrowding, and pressure on Swiss jobs, salaries and housing, found favour with voters. The big question now is, how will Brussels, already under pressure from full EU members like Britain over the impact of free movement, react?

[Sheilbh]

From what I read only one French canton voted 'yes' and only one German canton voted 'no', which is weird.

[Grinning_Colossus]

Translation: "Quit it, Blackey."


Translation: "That's what you get for being Bosnian."

[Liep]

At least it was crows and not rats.

[The Brain]

Impressive honkers.

[alfred russel]

From what I read only one French canton voted 'yes' and only one German canton voted 'no', which is weird.

It makes sense if you think about it from a Swiss perspective...The practical effects of a yes vote are likely to be reducing opportunities outside the country but protecting opportunities for the Swiss. The German speaking area of Switzerland has one of the best situations for employees on the continent. Losing the chance to work in Germany or Austria may be acceptable to improve the chance to work in Zurich. In the French speaking areas, while I know they have Geneva, Paris is very attractive.

[Ideologue]

Poor fucking Eurobabies don't get to freely move to and work in other countries.  My eyes are so full of tears that I can't fill out my application for a Canadian visa.

[Valmy]

From what I read only one French canton voted 'yes' and only one German canton voted 'no', which is weird.

It makes sense if you think about it from a Swiss perspective...The practical effects of a yes vote are likely to be reducing opportunities outside the country but protecting opportunities for the Swiss. The German speaking area of Switzerland has one of the best situations for employees on the continent. Losing the chance to work in Germany or Austria may be acceptable to improve the chance to work in Zurich. In the French speaking areas, while I know they have Geneva, Paris is very attractive.

I knew this could be spun into somehow showing French inferiority somehow.

[Zanza]

The EU should not have accepted the Swiss cherry-picking in the first place and I hope they have enough backbone to actually cancel all the treaties as stipulated in them once Switzerland enacts a new law which limits freedom of movement. We shouldn't grant them full access to our markets if they don't in turn grant our citizens full access to their job market. And if they want to compromise, they better bring their banking secret or something else that is worthwhile to the table.

[Ed Anger]

Poor fucking Eurobabies don't get to freely move to and work in other countries.  My eyes are so full of tears that I can't fill out my application for a Canadian visa.

Want a hug?

[Ideologue]

The EU should not have accepted the Swiss cherry-picking in the first place and I hope they have enough backbone to actually cancel all the treaties as stipulated in them once Switzerland enacts a new law which limits freedom of movement. We shouldn't grant them full access to our markets if they don't in turn grant our citizens full access to their job market. And if they want to compromise, they better bring their banking secret or something else that is worthwhile to the table.

If access to markets obligates a country to permit its trading partners' citizens to freely seek work in a country, why aren't Americans allowed free access to German job markets?  Serious question: we have practically zero customs barriers between us, but immigration barriers are high.  Is that okay?  Or is only okay when it's you doing it to another country?

[Ideologue]

Poor fucking Eurobabies don't get to freely move to and work in other countries.  My eyes are so full of tears that I can't fill out my application for a Canadian visa.

Want a hug?

Not really.  Canada is cold.  I just want to highlight, again, the Euroweenie and Canuckiweenie hypocrisy when it comes to immigration policy.

[alfred russel]

If access to markets obligates a country to permit its trading partners' citizens to freely seek work in a country, why aren't Americans allowed free access to German job markets?  Serious question: we have practically zero customs barriers between us, but immigration barriers are high.  Is that okay?  Or is only okay when it's you doing it to another country?

It is okay, or at least not a German problem. You know all the freedom of movement they have in Europe? It wasn't based on Germany unilaterally deciding to drop restrictions. It was based on bilateral agreements (hence the issue in this referendum where Switzerland is backing off their end of the deal).

The US is not going to allow unchecked freedom of movement between the US and EU. We have more migration controls than basically any other non repressive regime in the world. We actually won't even let some EU nationals travel here for holiday without a visa.

[alfred russel]

I don't want to hijack this thread, because I think this is an interesting topic, but at the risk of doing so....

We fingerprint foreigners coming and going from this country. Apparently Americans returning can't be fingerprinted because that violates their privacy.

However, in less stable countries we have apparently paid for them to have and implement the same fingerprinting technology we use in migration. Americans are not exempt from this fingerprinting. I really resent this. If we won't do it at home, why can we sponsor others to do it abroad? Especially since the US government must have access to the data (or else why would they pay for the technology).

FWIW, I am a little embarrassed that we fingerprint all the foreigners coming in and out as well.

[Ideologue]

I think it's great.  Other than the expense, I wouldn't mind if they did it at state borders.

Although ideally the US, EU, Japan, and Canada with maybe some other non-shitty countries here and there would be fully open to each other economically, albeit with checkpoints, my point was that a sovereign state can do whatever it likes with its immigration policy and this is not a good reason to advocate locking them out of general markets.