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Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: Lame Swiss voters back limit on immigration Mon Feb 10, 2014 12:00 am | |
| Voters in Switzerland on Sunday narrowly backed a plan to limit immigration, in a blow for the government after it had warned that the measure could harm the Swiss economy and relations with the European Union.
Swiss public television SRF reported that some 50.3 per cent of voters had backed a proposal by the nationalist People's Party to introduce quotas for all types of immigrants. About 49.7 per cent had voted against the plan. The difference between the two sides was fewer than 30,000 votes, with a turnout of about 56 per cent.
The decision means that the Swiss government will need to renegotiate treaties on the free movement of workers that it had painstakingly hammered out with the EU. Until now, citizens from most EU member states could live and work in Switzerland with little formality, while Swiss citizens could do the same in the 28-nation bloc that encircles the Alpine nation.
Two years ago Switzerland introduced quotas for immigrants from eight central and eastern European nations, a move that had already drawn heavy criticism from the EU. Ahead of Sunday's referendum business groups warned that many of the 80,000 people who had moved to Switzerland last year were vital for the country's economy, and curtailing immigration further could cost Swiss citizens' jobs too.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/swiss-voters-back-limit-on-immigration-20140210-hvbp6.html#ixzz2stNqtUoa |
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