Switzerland votes on Sunday in polls that will determine whether to cut annual immigration by three quarters. It's one of three controversial referendums taking place, reports GHN based on DW.
Swiss voters will decide on Sunday whether to introduce severe immigration cuts, in a poll conducted in the name of saving the environment, but which opponents have labeled xenophobic.
The so-called Ecopop campaign wants to cap immigration growth at 0.2 percent, or an addition of around 16,000 people annually - a cut of about three quarters from current levels. Statistics show foreign nationals make up a quarter of Switzerland's eight million inhabitants.
Ecopop maintains that current immigration levels are putting the Swiss environment under strain, shrinking idyllic landscapes and swelling the population. The association says immigration is adding 1.1-1.4 percent annually to the population of Switzerland, putting it on track to reach 12 million people by 2050.
But the campain has been rejected by the government, all political parties, employers and unions, and polls indicate it is likely to fail.
"It aims to drastically, linearly and arbitrarily reduce immigration to Switzerland, with absolutely no consideration for the needs of the economy," said Christian Lüscher, a parliamentarian for the Liberal Party, adding that such a cap would "impoverish our country."
The poll follows the February approval of an initiative demanding quotas for immigration from the EU- putting the bloc's relations with non-member Switzerland in turmoil.