Majority of Swiss against immigration ban, survey finds – I find voices of reason here. But still, quite a few people seem to think that Switzerland can survive without immigration?

13 comments

1. The wrong question to ask : yes or no immigration?

   The question should rather be: What immigration ***rate*** would allow Switzerland to balance infrastructure and housing demands while ensuring effective integration?

2. There are always people with all sorts of opinions. I am actually happy about the outcome of this study. I thought it‘s gonna be more SVP-vibe-ish/extreme but it seems that people can look at a topic differentiated. And to bo honest politics haven‘t done the best to make some effects better like housing

3. There’s lies, big lies, and surveys/polls up top.

4. Most people “against immigration” are not “against immigration.” They are for a more controlled, regulated form of immigration. 400.000 new people a year while only 4 new houses get built and 7 new jobs created, while also the infrastructure doesn’t get updated, isn’t sustainable.

5. It’s crazy that the entire developed world is desperately trying to find a way to increase birth rates to avoid dying out, but Switzerland with a steady population growth wants to limit it, so funny. Every western and eastern country would kill to have that level of growth.

6. I think they are a lot of confusion around this.

   It’s not really an “immigration ban”, but rather a control to maintain the population stable.

   Then it’s quite obvious that the exponential population growth can’t last forever. How many can we be in Switzerland? 10 millions, 15 millions? 100 millions? Do we want to build on every small part of land, or do we want to replace single housing by towers?

   People could say that it will stabilize, when there are enough people that it becomes less attractive due to over population, then immigrants will stop coming. But do we want to make our country unattractive enough so that people start leaving?

   Controlling population will have a strong effect on economics, but we cannot expect to continue to grow forever at this rate. There is a limit, it’s better to plan for it, and control it than letting it loose and be surprised when it happens.

7. Switzerland should heavily consider investing more in development of other regions like st Gallen/Ticino so that ppl wouldn’t consider just zurich/basel/bern/geneva and maybe laussane. The better other regions are developed, more ppl would consider living and working there contributing to better distribution and avoiding high concentration

8. This whole “Switzerland can’t survive without immigration” is so getting to me. Of course Switzerland can survive without immigration, just like any other country. I’d gladly accept a decline in GDP and wealth if it means that we can go back to before we were a circus for the tourist industry and global corporations to lure their employees to.

9. It can’t survive without highly qualified immigrants that bring value, that’s true. There is an argument to be had about the quality aspect though. A lot of people have had it with factions of military aged men within immigrant groups continuing whatever conflict they supposedly fled from over here by attacking each others social events.

   Immigration is essential. But maybe attaching some strings to it might be a good idea too.

10. In general, people are stupid.

    So

    >But still, quite a few people seem to think that Switzerland can survive without immigration?

    Sadly, yes. Many reactionaries and people dealing with emotional perceptions and fears of losing some culture or something, yet the same sit and watch TV and brouse the internet. If there is one consistency in human behavior, then its not being consistent.

    People in general are uneducated beyond their field of expertise. The further away, the more inconsistent they get.

    Xenophobic propaganda, racism, fear mongering from the right have had their fair share in influence.

    Sad state for Switzerland.

11. A black/white answer is stupid and only come from hate. We NEED immigration. Or just be prepared to take your elders at home and sign up your kids for construciton work and services because I can assure you, 95% of people building our roads/homes aren’t swiss people.

12. The constitution was once more not implemented fully after the against mass immigration initiative was accepted.

13. This is about in line with the historical votes on the subject. Maybe companies shouldn’t be able to hire whoever they need from the EU/EFTA countries. Maybe we would be better off obliging companies to look for a suitable candidate domestically before being able hire someone from abroad. Could even consider an incentive to retrain a person already here.

    I believe this is what drives immigration first and foremost. Swiss companies did well long before we had free movement of people. People were retrained or changed industry and that was a net positive as it is in line with the Swiss excellence amateurism we see e.g. in the armed forces and parliament. It’s a myth that “professionals” are just better than “amateurs”. I realise that jobs have gotten more technical in the last couple of decades but the trend to hire managers from Germany and France doesn’t help. They do not understand the dual education system of Switzerland and instead hire other French and Germans from a system they do understand.

    This presents a particular problem for rural workers who are not (re-) trained for new roles and hence makes them more suspicious of outsiders and they feel they are denied upward mobility. The gap in lifestyle and one’s job-reality has also widened considerably between the work many people do in urban areas vs rural jobs.

    As we know the unemployment statistics aren’t counting long-term unemployed that no longer receive benefits.

    We can’t leave anyone behind, this country doesn’t have a class system and I don’t want one, upwards social mobility has to be possible and should be incentivised.