Switzerland will be voting to put a fixed limit on its population on Sunday when voters go the polls to decide on a proposal to cap their population at 10 million.
The move is backed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, which describes it as a “sustainability initiative” aimed at easing pressure on housing, public services and the environment.
The Swiss government, all other major parties, business leaders and trade unions have dubbed the proposal a “chaos initiative”, arguing it will deprive hospitals and hotels of much needed staff, and damage hard-won relations with the European Union, leaving non-EU member Switzerland isolated in a very risky world.
Switzerland’s population has grown rapidly since 2002, when it stood at 7.3 million. Now it is 9.1 million, 27% of whom are foreign residents.
Many voters are concerned by overcrowded trains, expensive apartments and rising health costs.
The latest opinion polls indicate this could be a very close vote.
They suggest voters are inching towards a no vote by a wafer thin margin, with 52% opposed – but polls remain divided, with 45% saying they are in favour of the proposal and a significant number of voters still undecided.
Helin Genis and Nils Fiechter have a good deal in common, but their diametrically opposed views on limiting the Swiss population are indicative of the polarised nature of this referendum.
Both are young local politicians from immigrant families. Fiechter is 29 and Genis is 31. Helin’s parents are originally from Turkey, while Nils’s mother is from Canada and he holds dual citizenship.
“We have lost control,” complains Fiechter, who represents the Swiss People’s Party in canton Bern’s parliament. “Unchecked immigration is leading to Switzerland no longer being Switzerland.”
He believes Switzerland’s problems, which he says include a “housing shortage, gridlocked traffic, overburdened schools and strained social services”, are a direct result of immigration.
Genis, who is a Social Democrat elected to Bern city council, dismisses these arguments as scapegoating.
She tells BBC News: “It is not migrants who determine rent levels. It is not migrants who raise health insurance premiums. Nor is it migrants who make political decisions on housing, infrastructure or social investment.”
Viewing problems ‘”through the lens of migration does not lead to solutions, but to division”, she adds.
