Swiss immigration referendum, February 2014

Federal popular initiative "against mass immigration"
Results Votes Of total Yes 1,463,854 7001503300000000000♠50.33% No 1,444,552 7001496700000000000♠49.67% Voter turnout 56.57%
Results by canton Results of the initiative, in the twenty-six cantons of Switzerland. It shows differences between linguistic regions (German-French: +10.6%; German-Italian: -16.0%; French-Italian: -26.6%) as well as between countryside and cities (-9.9%).[1]

The federal popular initiative "against mass immigration" (German: Eidgenössische Volksinitiative "Gegen Masseneinwanderung", French: Initiative populaire « Contre l'immigration de masse », Italian: Iniziativa popolare "Contro l'immigrazione di massa") is a Swiss federal popular initiative. It aims to limit immigration through quotas,^[2] as it had been before the bilateral treaties between Switzerland and the European Union.

The proposal was launched by the national conservative Swiss People's Party and was accepted by a majority of the electorate (50.3%, a difference of 19,526 votes) and a majority of the cantons (14.5 out of 23; 12 of 20 full cantons plus five of six half cantons) on 9 February 2014. This initiative was mostly backed by rural (57.6% approvals), suburban (51.2% approvals), and isolated cities (51.3% approvals) of Switzerland as well as by a strong majority (69.2% approvals) in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, while metropolitan centers (58.5% rejection) and the French-speaking part (58.5% rejection) of Switzerland rejected it.^[1]

Context

Transition in stages until free person movement between EU and CH

As of 2014, 23.4% of Switzerland's population are foreigners (Germany: 9%). The net immigration is 80,000 people per year, 1% of the total population (three times more than e.g. in Germany, four times more than in the U.S.). Every year 30,000 – 40,000 receive Swiss nationality (this represents a per capita rate of about three times that of both Germany and the United States).^[3][4][5][6] According to the European Commission about 1 million EU citizens live in Switzerland and another 230,000 cross the border daily for work, while 430,000 Swiss live in the EU.^[7]

Immigrant workers make up a large part of the Swiss workforce in several industries. Scienceindustries, the Swiss association of chemical, pharma, and biotech businesses, emphasized that they rely on highly qualified workers from outside Switzerland to keep an edge over their competitors, and that 45% out of 67,000 people that its member companies employ in Switzerland are from abroad.^[8]

In 2002, the Swiss People's Party launched a federal popular initiative "against asylum abuse" that was rejected by 50.1% of voters (with a difference of 4,208 votes).^[9] In 2009, the referendum on biometric passports required by the Schengen Agreement was also accepted by 50.1% of voters (with a difference of 5,680 votes).^[9]

More recently, the Swiss People's Party had successfully launched federal popular initiatives "against the construction of minarets" (2009, 57.5%) and "for the expulsion of criminal foreigners" (2010, 52.3%).

Some news commentators claim that the federal popular initiative "against mass immigration" contravenes bilateral treaties between Switzerland and the European Union that guarantee the free movement of persons introduced in 2007 following a referendum in 2000.^[10]

Results

Reception

National reactions

After the acceptance of the federal popular initiative "against mass immigration", views varied widely as to why the initiative was successful at the polls, and how it might actually be implemented.^[12] To some observers, the situation was reminiscent of the referendum held on 6 December 1992, when 50.3% of the Swiss people voted against joining the European Economic Area.^[13]

The Swiss People's Party, which was the main proponent of the initiative, celebrated the referendum outcome as a major victory. The party's head Toni Brunner stated: "This is a sea change in Switzerland's migration policy. It is clear that immigration will have to be massively restricted."^[14]

Luzi Stamm, the VP of the SVP, praised the outcome of the referendum, saying that Switzerland should "have the right to control [its own immigration]," and indicated that radical right-wing parties in the rest of Europe would enjoy similar victories because of the mistakes of the "[European] politicians."^[15]

Some commentators fear a slowdown in economic activity due to the enforcement of the initiative. Business and industry groups were opposed to the initiative during the campaign and expressed concern about the measure's impact on their ability to attract and retain top talent from abroad.^[16] The Swiss Bankers Association expressed disappointment and concern at the result, saying: "We urgently need to hold constructive talks with the EU to explain our position".^[17]

Although all governing parties except the Swiss People's Party opposed the initiative, the federal council (the Swiss government) announced that it would promptly start implementing the new constitutional provisions and will set to work on re-introducing immigration quotas "without delay".^[18] The acceptance of the initiative binds the Swiss government to renegotiate the entire EU labor market agreements with the EU within three years; the current treaties stay in force in the meantime.^[19]

European Union reactions

The European Commission issued a statement saying that it was "disappointed" in the Swiss referendum on immigration restriction result but would wait to study how exactly the outcome of the referendum affects the relations between Switzerland and the European Union.^[20] European Commission vice-president Viviane Reding stated that the result of the referendum could jeopardise Switzerland's access to the European single market, saying "The single market is not Swiss cheese."^[21]

Consequences

Within the first week after the vote, the consequences were unclear. There were warnings in the hours after the initiative passed that multiple new treaties still under discussion and new and existing collaborations between Switzerland and the European Union might be endangered:^[22]

• electricity agreement, Directive 2009/72/EC
• Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals
• participation in education programs (e.g. Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013)
• participation in research programs (e.g. Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development)

Discussions are ongoing as to how policy and practices can be designed in accordance with both Swiss and EU law. Representations have been made that the free movement of persons is not sacrosanct. Liechtenstein, over 30% of whose residents and over 50% of whose employed are foreigners, has a legal provision that it can restrict immigration. When the EU started the negotiations with Turkey, it explicitly did not include the free movement of people.^[23]

Education and research

In a statement to HINA, EU Commission spokesperson Joe Hennon said that the vote would influence the next round of talks for Swiss inclusion in Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+. The talks were about programmes which can be applied for in 2014. For the acacemic year 2011/2012, 2,612 Swiss students went abroad, at the same time 2,673 foreign students came to Switzerland with the Erasmus program.^[8][24] Under the Seventh Framework Programme, the predecessor to Horizon 2020, more than one in four Swiss research proposals were funded in a total of 3,000 projects, which was the fourth highest success rate on average. Swiss researchers secured €1.27 billion in EU funding between 2007-2012, including about €356 million in coveted basic research grants from the European Research Council.^[8] According to the "Innovation Union Scoreboard 2013" Switzerland was the overall innovation leader before Sweden, Germany, Denmark and Finland. It continuously outperformed the EU27 countries.^[25][26] By 26 February 2014, the EU announced that at least for 2014, Switzerland status in Horizon2020 would be downgraded from associated to third country and that Swiss based scientist can not apply for ERC grants.^[27]

The referendum will not impact CERNs recruitment as it is an international organisation and does not need Swiss work permits.^[8]

Croatia

Following the referendum the federal council was no longer allowed to sign the already negotiated free movement accord with Croatia, which joined the EU in July 2013. The new Swiss constitution article is immediately binding for the federal council, which now is looking for a way to not discriminate against Croatia. The European Commission connects the negotiations for 2014 Erasmus program and the signing of the free movement accord for Croatia.^[28][29][30]

See also

• Ecopop
• Demographics of Switzerland
• Freedom of movement for workers
• Immigration to Switzerland
• Politics of Switzerland
• Swiss referendums, 2014
• Switzerland–European Union relations

References

Elections and referendums in Switzerland Parliamentary elections 1848 1851 1854 1857 1860 1863 1866 1869 1872 1875 1878 1881 1884 1887 1890 1893 1896 1899 1902 1905 1908 1911 1914 1917 1919 1922 1925 1928 1931 1935 1939 1943 1947 1951 1955 1959 1963 1967 1971 1975 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 Referendums 1798 1802 1848 1866 1872 1874 1875 1876 1877 1879 1880 1882 1884 1885 1887 1889 1890 1891 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1900 1902 1903 1905 1906 1907 1908 1910 1912 1913 1914 1915 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1933 1934 1935 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016