Business leaders and unions in Switzerland are mobilising ahead of a referendum on Sunday on capping immigration, which has triggered fears of dire impacts on employment and trade relations with the European Union.
The vote will focus on a proposal by the hard-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP) aimed at keeping the wealthy Alpine nation’s population, currently 9.1 million, below 10 million until 2050.
The SVP, the country’s biggest party, argues that the initiative, entitled “No to a Switzerland with 10 million!” is needed to fight “out of control” immigration, which it blames for problems ranging from overcrowded trains to skyrocketing rents and urban sprawl.
The initiative faces broad opposition across the government, parliament and business sector, but opinion polls suggest the vote could be tight.
Major employers’ organisations and unions have dubbed it a “chaos initiative.”
They warn it could sink prosperity in Switzerland, where large swathes of the economy, from medical research to construction to healthcare, depend heavily on foreign labour, primarily from the surrounding EU.
In the hotel industry too, “more than 50% of employees are foreigners,” said Martin von Moos, head of the industry association HotellerieSuisse, voicing concern that the initiative would worsen chronic labour shortages in the sector.
EU market access jeopardised
There are also fears the initiative would jeopardise major agreements linking Switzerland to the EU, its main trading partner, including their 1999 “agreement on the free movement of persons.”
Last year, more than half of Switzerland’s total exports went to the EU, to the tune of more than 147 billion Swiss francs (€160 billion).
“For us, access to the European market is vital,” said Pierre-Yves Bonvin, head of textile machinery manufacturer Steiger, which exports its entire production to the EU.
The company, based in Vionnaz in the southwest, has relocated part of its production to China, but has retained high-value-added machinery in Switzerland.
More than a third of the 40 people Steiger employs in Switzerland are foreign nationals.
“In Switzerland, we can find engineers to design, work and assemble the machines, but we lack the expertise to test and calibrate them,” Bonvin told the AFP news agency.
“There is no longer any training in this field in Switzerland and we have to recruit these specialists from France and Germany,” he said, stressing that without these skills, “we could not continue to produce these machines in Switzerland.”
‘Industry will come last’
The SVP has brushed aside such concerns, pointing out that its proposal includes quotas allowing for around 40,000 people to immigrate to the country each year.
But those quotas would be far from sufficient and risk being lopsided, warned Simon Michel, head of medical technology company Ypsomed, which makes injection systems for diabetes.
“Priority will be given to hospitals and for elderly care, (and) industry will come last,” predicted Michel, who is also a lawmaker with the right-wing Liberals.
Faced with soaring demand for obesity treatments, his company is seeking to recruit around 100 precision mechanics over the next three years for its factory in Solothurn, near the capital Bern.
But he said competition was fierce for this highly sought-after profile.
Even with “a substantial apprenticeship programme”, he said his company could not train everyone they needed, and would need to turn to France, Germany or Poland to find personnel.
Trade unions have also voiced concerns that the pressure on exporters could push them to relocate, leading to job losses in Switzerland.
The country’s biggest union, Unia, also warned the initiative would weaken labour protections, abolish rules barring discrimination between resident and foreign employees and “open the door wide to wage dumping.”
It cautioned that the SVP’s “xenophobic campaign” would “put pressure on salaries for all workers in the country.”