Switzerland’s vote on proposed measures to restrict immigration to ensure the population does not exceed 10 million is dividing the country.<\/p>\n
A farmer, a trainee electrician, a business leader and a hotel manager provide a\u00a0snapshot of those due to vote on Sunday on the “No to a Switzerland with 10 million!” initiative put forward by the hard-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP).<\/p>\n
The vote is expected to be close, with the opposition camp slightly ahead in recent opinion polls.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
– Marlene Perroud, 34, farmer (FOR) –<\/p>\n
The co-founder of the Swiss Agricultural Revolt group runs a dairy farm in Dompierre in the western Fribourg canton.<\/p>\n
“I’m in favour of this initiative because I believe that preserving agricultural land is the most important thing in any country,” she said.<\/p>\n
“As the saying goes: ‘No country without farmers’.<\/p>\n
“We can’t accommodate people without concreting over land. There is no miracle answer. Everyone needs an apartment. And then, of course, we need roads and all the infrastructure that goes with it.<\/p>\n
“As a result, naturally, we lose a huge amount of land. We see cities expanding.<\/p>\n
“I have a colleague who is currently at the Federal Supreme Court because the municipality expropriated his land to build several roads across his fields.<\/p>\n
“There’s intense pressure on farmland. We have lost a lot of land and land prices are skyrocketing.<\/p>\n
“If there’s no more farming in Switzerland, what are we going to eat? Hormone-treated beef? Palm oil from the Amazon rainforest that’s been cleared?<\/p>\n
“We’re heading towards a situation where we can no longer feed our population, which is tragic.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
– Jaysen Lambercy, 20, apprentice (AGAINST) –<\/p>\n
Originally from Lignerolle in western Switzerland’s Vaud canton, the apprentice electrician refutes the SVP’s claims about the impact of immigration.<\/p>\n
“I have a problem with some of the SVP’s arguments, such as those about traffic jams and public transport,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Adding more train services isn’t impossible, and I imagine there are solutions to traffic bottlenecks” other than capping immigration.<\/p>\n
“I’m going to vote against it because I find that none of the arguments in favour applies at all to my situation and that of those around me.<\/p>\n
“There’s nobody who can’t find a job and no-one who can’t find a place to live.<\/p>\n
“I don’t at all get the impression that an immigrant or a cross-border worker is going to steal my job, because we’re always under-staffed.”<\/p>\n
The initiative “seems illogical to me”.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
– Heinz Baumgartner, 63, business chief (FOR) –<\/p>\n
The chairman of Schweiter Technologies, a composite materials manufacturer based outside Zug in central Switzerland, takes a dim view of the country’s immigration policy, feeling it is not selective enough.<\/p>\n
“Switzerland needs immigration. However, too many people are coming in too short a time, and often the wrong kind,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The negative effects of unchecked immigration — overburdened infrastructure, rising rents, traffic jams — outweigh the benefits.<\/p>\n
“What is crucial for a country is the development of prosperity per capita, not the absolute level. Prosperity per capita has stagnated.<\/p>\n
“The aim therefore must be quality over quantity.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
– Martin von Moos, 62, hotelier (AGAINST) –<\/p>\n
The general manager of two four-star hotels in Ruschlikon and Thalwil, near Zurich, says he is worried because the hotel sector faces staff shortages.<\/p>\n
“Fewer and fewer young people want to work in our industry,” he explained, even though “demographics are working against us” due to the ageing population.<\/p>\n
“Since the early days of tourism in Switzerland, there have always been workers from all over Europe — Italians, Portuguese, Germans, Austrians.”<\/p>\n
At the hotel in Ruschlikon, “half of the staff are foreign” — a proportion comparable to the rest of the sector in Switzerland — whether “in the restaurant, the kitchen, the spa; on every floor”.<\/p>\n
“The head chef is Swiss, but some of the kitchen staff are Italian.<\/p>\n
“The hotel must provide high-quality services, for which we need qualified staff.<\/p>\n
“It worries me.”<\/p>\n
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