On 7 June 1970, exactly 56 years ago, the Swiss went to the polls with a turnout of 74 per cent, a record for the time. The proposal was to limit the number of foreigners to 10 per cent of the cantonal population. At that time, there were hundreds of thousands of workers from southern Europe in Switzerland, particularly Italians and Spaniards, who had arrived on seasonal permits: they worked here but could not bring their families, had to return home every winter, and lived in barracks and boarding houses. The initiative would have forced the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of them. It was rejected: 54% to 46%.
Many of us in this group are the children or grandchildren of those people. Or we arrived a few decades later. We live here. We work here. We pay taxes here. We have built a life in this country. And we have been able to do so, among other things, because in 1970 a majority of Swiss people decided that foreigners working here had the right to stay.
On Sunday 14 June, Switzerland will once again vote on immigration. This time, the SVP’s initiative “Pas de Suisse à 10 millions” proposes that the resident population should not exceed 10 million. Among the measures envisaged are restricting family reunification and reviewing the free movement agreements with the EU. April polls put it in the lead with 52%. Most of us cannot vote; we do not have a Swiss passport or do not meet the requirements. But we can understand what is at stake. And we can remember how we got here, and who voted so that we could stay.