Zippyjuan
11-30-2014, 12:38 PM
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30267042
Voters in Switzerland have decisively rejected a proposal to cut net immigration to no more than 0.2% of the population.
The country's 26 cantons rejected the proposal, with about 74% of people voting no in Sunday's referendum.
Supporters of the measure argued that it would have reduced pressure on the country's resources. Opponents said it would have been bad for the economy.
Around a quarter of Switzerland's eight million people are foreigners.
The measure would have required the government to reduce immigration from about 80,000 to 16,000 people a year.
A ballot box is emptied at a voting centre in Zurich, Switzerland, on 30 November, 2014
Under Switzerland's system of direct democracy, citizens can force a referendum if they muster enough signatures of support.
The country voted in February to re-introduce immigration quotas, in effect opting out of an EU free movement agreement.
The government still has to implement that referendum result, which threw relations with the EU into turmoil.
Two other referendums were also being held on Sunday: one on forcing the central bank to boost its gold reserves and one on scrapping a tax perk for wealthy foreigners.
They, too, failed to garner enough support for the measures to pass into law.
Switzerland's population is about 8.18 million - of whom 1.96 million are not Swiss nationals, according to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO)
EU citizens make up the vast majority of immigrants in Switzerland
The largest group of foreign nationals living in Switzerland is Italians; immigration from Italy started more than a century ago, but difficulties getting Swiss nationality meant many families remained Italian
The second largest group comes from Germany, and the third largest comes from the former Yugoslavia.
More at link.
Voters in Switzerland have decisively rejected a proposal to cut net immigration to no more than 0.2% of the population.
The country's 26 cantons rejected the proposal, with about 74% of people voting no in Sunday's referendum.
Supporters of the measure argued that it would have reduced pressure on the country's resources. Opponents said it would have been bad for the economy.
Around a quarter of Switzerland's eight million people are foreigners.
The measure would have required the government to reduce immigration from about 80,000 to 16,000 people a year.
A ballot box is emptied at a voting centre in Zurich, Switzerland, on 30 November, 2014
Under Switzerland's system of direct democracy, citizens can force a referendum if they muster enough signatures of support.
The country voted in February to re-introduce immigration quotas, in effect opting out of an EU free movement agreement.
The government still has to implement that referendum result, which threw relations with the EU into turmoil.
Two other referendums were also being held on Sunday: one on forcing the central bank to boost its gold reserves and one on scrapping a tax perk for wealthy foreigners.
They, too, failed to garner enough support for the measures to pass into law.
Switzerland's population is about 8.18 million - of whom 1.96 million are not Swiss nationals, according to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO)
EU citizens make up the vast majority of immigrants in Switzerland
The largest group of foreign nationals living in Switzerland is Italians; immigration from Italy started more than a century ago, but difficulties getting Swiss nationality meant many families remained Italian
The second largest group comes from Germany, and the third largest comes from the former Yugoslavia.
More at link.