Switzerland wil have a referendum to cap population at 10M • Hacker News Board

Re: Switzerland wil have a referendum to cap population at 10M

#421

Post by p1necone » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 10:47 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #272

kgwxd wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Border control is not equivalent to racism. The people pushing for it loudly just tend to be doing it for blatantly racist reasons. Unsurprisingly, those people tend to abuse any ounce of power given to them. When they're granted extraordinary government powers, they make up official sounding reason to achieve their racist agenda. Hence the general consensus that any talk of border control is racism. The non-racist-d…

You think people who support border controls are simply prejudiced based on skin color? Like, their problem with Little Mogadishu or Little Bangladesh is that people in those places don't need sunscreen? Do you think that, if Ilhan Omar was Albanian, people would love her?

This seems like a sarcastic/unserious comment, but based on my interactions with people who are supposedly anti-immigration - yes, it's entirely based on skin colour.

Someone from India, China etc whose family immigrated in the 1800s to work in gold mines/railroads etc and probably has deeper roots in the country than the person criticising them = immigrant, bad, shouldn't be here. Somehow simultaneously taking all the jobs and living off the state and not contributing.

Someone from Europe/America/Canada with white skin who either came here as a child or was born here to immigrant parents = not a problem at all, they "don't count" for some reason.

Re: Switzerland wil have a referendum to cap population at 10M

#422

Post by skiing_crawling » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 10:47 PM UTC

flexagoon wrote: post #414

like_any_other wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a lovely place. Why wouldn't you want to pass a law to keep it that way?

Why would you want less people to live in a lovely place?

Maybe some (or many) people believe that more people will make it less "lovely". I think this is a popular stance and I think many people are more than satisfied with the current population density of their area.

Re: Switzerland wil have a referendum to cap population at 10M

#423

Post by wat10000 » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 10:48 PM UTC

yonaguska wrote: post #353

wat10000 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people are awful. I’d be fine with Afghan refugees moving in. Even if we accept the premise that Afghan culture is “awful,” wouldn’t the fact that they’ve fled the country indicate they’re not exactly in sync with that culture? I live in an extremely diverse area with many immigrants on my street and it’s fine.

They could have fled for any number of reasons- that doesn't mean that they aren't exactly in sync with the culture they are coming from. And even if they aren't in sync with the culture they are fleeing- they very likely still hold radically different values than you. I met a man from Afghanistan sometime last year, however, once we got past the introductions and realized we shared things in common- he opened up to…

I’ve had that experience as well, except instead of Afghanistan it was America, and instead of Sharia law it was Biblical law.

I am far more afraid of certain of my native-born countrymen than I am of people who come here.

Re: Switzerland wil have a referendum to cap population at 10M

#424

Post by greggoB » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 10:49 PM UTC

didgetmaster wrote: post #222

[flagged]

Given the initiative doesn't mention ethnicity/race but rather a population cap of people in general, Europeans (who are also white, FYI) might find it odd to do as you suggest.

The US, meanwhile, has halted ALL refugees, except for white South Africans [0]. I leave it to you to decide if that discernment seems fair or not.

[0] https://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/21/afrikaners

Re: Switzerland wil have a referendum to cap population at 10M

#425

Post by meken » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 10:49 PM UTC

xenonite wrote: post #408

jansport123 wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

seems to be a common concern amongst the local population everywhere "X identity is hiring only X identity"

Yes, we have a really well recognized Spanish team lead here, yet he’s mostly hiring Spanish people (in Switzerland), oh yes and one Italian is the exception. Also we had a German team lead hiring Germans, well surprise it is easier being with similar ones. Diversity back in the day meant Physics, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering working together…

I’m an American and I just had the thought - if I was working in Japan at a Japanese company and I had the opportunity to hire, would I have a bias to hire other Americans?

Honestly probably, since I understand them the best.

Re: Switzerland wil have a referendum to cap population at 10M

#426

Post by ausbah » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 10:50 PM UTC

missedthecue wrote: post #285

Asmod4n wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capping a population is a short term solution creating huge issues for the following generations. Examples: lots of places this happened.

I agree. Enacting the deliberate policy of enforcing stasis sounds very appealing if one is incapable of conceptualizing second and third order consequences.

that seems to be exceedingly common with boomers. shotgunning lord knows how much for the sake of keeping their current net worth up

Re: Switzerland wil have a referendum to cap population at 10M

#427

Post by servo_sausage » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 10:50 PM UTC

qingcharles wrote: post #300

oytis wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think at least in Germany it's not true - among people coming to Germany there are more refugees of various kinds than professionals

These things aren't mutually-exclusive, though.

Every statistic regarding refugee attainment shows that it is; unless you are proposing to limit intake to only the skilled.

Re: Switzerland wil have a referendum to cap population at 10M

#428

Post by tpholland » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 10:50 PM UTC

bluebarbet wrote: post #401

tpholland wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely! Although I would have thought it was common knowledge. 62% of the Swiss population have German as their main language, 22.7% French, 8% Italian, and 0.5% Romansch. This is an extraordinary level of diversity for a European country, and as other commentators have noted it isn't like there's a lingua franca: a large proportion of Swiss do not speak the languages used by other groups fluently--for example, 8…

Interesting statistics and I for one will back up your analysis. But the Alpine woolly mammoth in the room is that, in 21st-century Europe, "cultural and religious diversity" does not, for most people, imply a heterogeneity of Germanophones and Francophones, or Protestants and Catholics. It means something else.

Sorry if cultural history and facts are a bit dull. I don't really want to argue about *something else* though; let's leave that to the *something else*ists.

Re: Switzerland wil have a referendum to cap population at 10M

#429

Post by mrtksn » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 10:54 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #109

idiotsecant wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is the idea of economic destruction akin to what the UK has suffered abhorrent to you? In your excitement about the one you might consider the other.

> the idea of economic destruction akin to what the UK has suffered abhorrent to you? Yes. But I don’t think Brexit is comparable to what is being proposed here. In Brexit, the UK invoked Article 50. In this case, the EU would have to execute its Guillotine clause. That dramatically changes the framework for and thus possibility of renegotiations.

There’s not going to be negotiations to drop the core principles, I don’t know why bunch of people keep imagining this. UK was let go, Switzerland will be let go too.

Hoping different outcome by negotiation over this is like hoping for negotiating your way out of your gym membership payment when still attending. Not going to happen unless you become a charity case or insignificant, being significant is not a strength its a weakness when you are looking for charity or special treatment. Switzerland can imagine being too important to loose just as UK thought and they will be let go as UK.

I guess leaving EU can be useful to those who want to do things to Switzerland just like they did things to UK.

Re: Switzerland wil have a referendum to cap population at 10M

#430

Post by rayiner » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 10:54 PM UTC

wat10000 wrote: post #419

philipallstar wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's nothing to do with race. You need to gain the mindset that not everything is about race.

If it’s nothing to do with race, then why is a country with four official languages being called “homogeneous”?

Why do people say China is “homogenous” when people speaking Cantonese can’t understand people speaking Mandarin? It’s because those groups of people have been part of a common polity off and on since the Qin dynasty more than 2,000 years ago.

Similarly, Switzerland has been a thing, in various forms, since French and Italian were considered different dialects of vulgar Latin. The groups that speak the four different languages nonetheless share 800+ years of common political and social history.