Thoughts on immigration vote
A few weeks have passed since the February 9 vote to reintroduce immigration quotas. I live in a largely conservative German-speaking canton, where 51.1% of voters approved the Swiss People's Party's initiative.
How do I feel about it?
I am glad that my country has exercised its sovereignty as well as its democracy, while standing up to Brussels. We are not a colony of the EU.
Secondly, we haven't voted to end immigration. We have voted to end mass immigration without controls. Every sovereign nation has the right to control the influx of newcomers, as does the USA and Canada. Even Liechtenstein, which is a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) was able to negotiate quotas with the EU. Switzerland as a non-EEA member, should have the right to do the same.
I am quite confident that things will pan out. The cabinet and parliament have three years to come up with a detailed plan. The facts are: one quarter of Switzerland's eight million inhabitants are foreign; there is 3.5% unemployment; and we need foreigners to keep the economy going. In typical Swiss calmness, pros and cons will be weighed and a reasonable solution will fe found. After all, it was the German Swiss who founded Switzerland.
I found the following comment on an article about the subject worthy of consideration: "For the most part, the Swiss gripe is not about poor, distant immigrants but about rich neighbors driving up house prices and clogging up motorways."