Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Swiss voters reject proposal to cap population at ten million

swissinfo.ch

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 289 posts

Re: Swiss voters reject proposal to cap population at ten million

#61

Post by epolanski »

viking123 wrote: post #54
epolanski wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what? I despise such openly xenophobic posts. And Indian immigration tends to be the most educated and wealthy. It's also the wealthiest ethnic group in the US. By far. In any case, leaving Schengen for Switzerland would be de facto equivalent to Brexit, an economic disaster. Switzerland thrives by attracting highly qualified professionals for it's service and manufacturing industries and yes, also at the lower en…

Maybe they prefer living amongst themselves than make number go to the moon. If these guys are such GDP rocket fuel and a solution, they can make their own country the best in the world. I visited few times and I like the country but I don't expect them to accept or cater to me.

Who's they?

> If these guys are such GDP rocket fuel and a solution, they can make their own country the best in the world.

Not every country in the world gives the same opportunities, it's only natural many motivated individuals may try their chances elsewhere, I see nothing wrong with it.

I'm an European and I have many grandparents and their relatives who emigrated to Argentina, US, Canada a century or so ago.

My parents left communist Poland for Italy in the 70s.

Many of my friends left Italy and now reside in the UK, Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia and some in the US too.

Overly xenophobic anti immigration stances don't resonate with me at all.

Immigration is a net benefit for humanity, it has had a huge impact on distributing human capital where it could best express it's talents.

Like everything it has its cons and regulations are needed. But none of those should be rooted on open racism.

Re: Swiss voters reject proposal to cap population at ten million

#62

Post by JumpCrisscross »

ProllyInfamous wrote: post #57
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a trend that is growing all over Europe The current system permitting freedom of movement across the continent while devolving immigration policy entirely to members creates a fundamental tension the EU needs to resolve. Because otherwise, Berlin can basically dictate EU immigration single handedly, which is bound to generate backlash even if they run a perfect programme.

I think this somewhat federation causes problems similar (by design!) to those that the Federal System within the United States encourages. The "finger pointing" allows for status quo to carry on as usual, while the overlapping & glacial judicial systems legislate glacially from their antiquated benches ... ---- Hopefully we can all take inspiration from the living memories of balkanization – smaller groups, hopefull…

> we can all take inspiration from the living memories of balkanization

Massive internal trade barriers and security so fragmented you’re at the whim of your larger neighbors?

Re: Swiss voters reject proposal to cap population at ten million

#63

Post by greyhound »

viking123 wrote: post #23
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a trend that is growing all over Europe The current system permitting freedom of movement across the continent while devolving immigration policy entirely to members creates a fundamental tension the EU needs to resolve. Because otherwise, Berlin can basically dictate EU immigration single handedly, which is bound to generate backlash even if they run a perfect programme.

[flagged]

German passport == German.

Re: Swiss voters reject proposal to cap population at ten million

#64

Post by SiempreViernes »

inigyou wrote: post #28
stephbook wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this Berlin that decides anything and rolls it out contintent-wide with us in the room right now?

Berlin is basically forcing the EU's hand regarding the Gaza war, so, yes?

Only in the same sense that Hungary was dictating Russia and Ukraine policy.

Re: Swiss voters reject proposal to cap population at ten million

#65

Post by ProllyInfamous »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #62
ProllyInfamous wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this somewhat federation causes problems similar (by design!) to those that the Federal System within the United States encourages. The "finger pointing" allows for status quo to carry on as usual, while the overlapping & glacial judicial systems legislate glacially from their antiquated benches ... ---- Hopefully we can all take inspiration from the living memories of balkanization – smaller groups, hopefull…

> we can all take inspiration from the living memories of balkanization Massive internal trade barriers and security so fragmented you’re at the whim of your larger neighbors?

It's a give/take. Even Israel & Spain have fenced borders (the latter on African continent)[i.e. it's not just USA "being racist"].

Every jurisdiction needs to limit immigration more (which EU's dispersed jurisdictions make impossible, by statute) before any one country can tackle any of their other lacks/disputes. The current EU setup is the inverse of USA's, where the feds technically regulate most immigration issues (instead of EU's individual memberstates having most power), but not all.

Re: Swiss voters reject proposal to cap population at ten million

#66

Post by poisonborz »

Misleading to call this "cap population", no one can cap population. The vote was about capping immigrant benefits, mostly aiming germans (reaching 9.5m) and then Swiss EU isolation/"Swexit" (at 10m). Basically the right wing SVP's long term goals packaged in a format that was more palatable to the masses.

Re: Swiss voters reject proposal to cap population at ten million

#67

Post by LaurensBER »

abc03 wrote: post #16

Maybe a personal analysis: It's a trend that is growing all over Europe. It's the equivalent of overtourism and a problem for the ruling parties (except the SVP that proposed it). Expect it to continue quite soon in Switzerland and other European countries (France, Germany etc.). Of course it doesn't make sense to curb immigration at 10 Mio and many know it. It was also for many a vote against the ruling parties. Alt…

> And compared to other countries, I think Xenophobia is low

I would agree and also suggest that initiatives like this play a large role in doing so. While there's a lot of bullshit arguments coming from the "yes" camp they do make some reasonable points and it's important that we discuss them to show what the trade-offs are.

I cannot speak for all Swiss but knowing that it was a democratic decision to continue with some, high skilled, immigration makes it far easier to accept than if some government employee in Bern would've made that decision single handed.

Re: Swiss voters reject proposal to cap population at ten million

#68

Post by brightbeige »

Recent, related New Yorker article that goes into the background leading up to the vote

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/06/15/could-switzerl...

    Despite the prosperity, many Swiss had mixed emotions about the guest workers, who came largely from Southern Europe. As the Swiss novelist Max Frisch observed, “We wanted workers, but we got people.”

Re: Swiss voters reject proposal to cap population at ten million

#69

Post by [deleted] »

FabCH wrote: post #27
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a trend that is growing all over Europe The current system permitting freedom of movement across the continent while devolving immigration policy entirely to members creates a fundamental tension the EU needs to resolve. Because otherwise, Berlin can basically dictate EU immigration single handedly, which is bound to generate backlash even if they run a perfect programme.

Immigration is not devolved. The whole point of Schengen is the opposite of devolution of immigration. You are confusing immigration with naturalization. Only if Berlin starts handing out German passports do they dictate EU immigration single-handedly.

[deleted]

Re: Swiss voters reject proposal to cap population at ten million

#70

Post by abc03 »

epolanski wrote: post #46
viking123 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

So what? I despise such openly xenophobic posts. And Indian immigration tends to be the most educated and wealthy. It's also the wealthiest ethnic group in the US. By far. In any case, leaving Schengen for Switzerland would be de facto equivalent to Brexit, an economic disaster. Switzerland thrives by attracting highly qualified professionals for it's service and manufacturing industries and yes, also at the lower en…

The plumbers I had were all Swiss. There is not an overproportional amount of foreigners working in this profession.
Post reply on HN