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Swiss voters made the right call by rejecting the population cap referendum – a proposal driven by divisions over immigration that, if approved, could have kneecapped the economy. 55% said no to slashing migration because cutting ties with the EU Single Market would cost far more than it saves. Access to needed workers and European trade beats hard-line immigration controls every time.
The Swiss immigration debate gets distorted when people ignore the actual facts on the ground. The largest immigrant groups in Switzerland are European; the country has no conventional public welfare system, and health care is privately funded. Framing this vote as a rejection of harmful migration overlooks the fact that Switzerland's population boom is a very different story from what anti-immigration rhetoric suggests.