Switzerland Voters Back Immigration Quotas Sunday Feb 09,2014

 

In a referendum mobilised by far-right populists demanding caps on immigration in Swiss where almost one in four of the population are immigrants, 50.3% of voters supported the measure and 49.7% voted against  in a relatively high turnout of 56%,a difference of fewer than 30,000 votes.

Support was particularly strong in rural areas, while cities such as Basel, Geneva and Zurich rejected the proposal.

Voters in a majority of cantons (17) overall approved the proposal "against massive immigration", tearing up the country’s commitment to the freedom of movement of people deal known as the Shengen agreement.

 Electoral workers empty a ballot box at a makeshift polling station after Swiss voters went to the polls to decide on a proposal to cap immigration to the Alpine republic, in the center of Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2014.
  

 Electoral workers sort out voting papers after emptying the ballot boxes at a makeshift polling station after Swiss voters went to the polls to decide on a proposal to cap immigration to the Alpine republic, in the center of Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2014.

 
The vote split Switzerland east to west, with the francophone west voting against the quotas and the German-speaking east backing the clampdown.

The Swiss yes vote came as a surprise since opinion polls had shown a majority against the quotas in a country that is one of the world's wealthiest and most successful, with a jobless rate of less than 4%, the lowest in Europe.

The vote, organised by the arch-conservative and Eurosceptic Swiss People's party, raises the prospect of Switzerland having to quit the Schengen system, which it joined in 2002, and its citizens forfeiting passport-free travel across most of Europe.

 Swiss People's Party poster backing call for quota

   

 Posters For and Against Immigration Curbs
 


Note
 Some 1.9 million of the eight million people currently living in Switzerland are non-Swiss — 3.3 percent more than in 2012, according to official data.
 
The highest numbers of recent immigrants come from Portugal, Kosovo, Germany, Italy and France.


 Switzerland is not an EU member, but it is closely integrated with the EU and is a member of Europe's passport-free Schengen regime.

 The vote to cap immigration throws this into question, undermining several bilateral agreements between Brussels and Berne, and challenging the Schengen system since the caps will also apply to EU citizens who previously enjoyed unfettered travel and working rights in Switzerland under the open borders system.