How to Destroy Your Own Economy: Switzerland Version
By 
About 9.1 million people live in Switzerland — approaching too many, for many Swiss people. On Sunday, the country will vote on whether to take measures to cap its growing population at 10 million.
The result could have huge implications for the Swiss economy — and for the composition of the country for decades to come.
If voters approve the initiative, it could reshape a rapidly aging country that depends heavily on talented foreign workers. Business leaders warn it could cause critical labor shortages over the next 15 years, when as many as half of Swiss workers are set to retire.
The right-wing party that proposed the cap, the Swiss People’s Party, predicts it will help clear traffic jams and soothe high housing costs, while preserving the country’s language traditions and agrarian roots.
Switzerland’s seven-member governing council, which includes two representatives from the People’s Party, officially opposes the measure. It commissioned a Swiss consulting firm, Demografik, to predict how a population cap would change the country. The firm modeled a scenario in which Switzerland’s population reached 10 million in 15 years, and its government was then required to make drastic moves to bring it back down.
The firm found those measures could have wrenching effects on Switzerland’s society and its economy, and on the country’s relationship with its neighbors in Europe. The measure’s sponsors reject those findings, claiming most migrants are not actually filling high-demand, specialist jobs.
Now, you might say, “oh well, the Swiss are like other Europeans and hate Muslims.” Well, yes, but that’s not really the issue here.
Based on historical trends, most of the people barred from moving to Switzerland would be other Europeans — as opposed to asylum seekers from the Middle East, Africa or elsewhere, against whom many European countries saw a backlash. That’s the nature of Swiss migration: It has largely come from neighboring countries, like Italy and Germany.
Some residents complain migration has threatened their way of life by, for example, replacing the sounds of Swiss German in town squares with the “high German” that is spoken in Germany. And the Swiss People’s Party has complained that Muslim immigrants threaten “our Western values,” even though the number of newcomers from Muslim-majority countries is outstripped by those from other parts of Europe.
Switzerland currently has an agreement with the European Union that allows for free movement between Switzerland and its neighbors. The cap could force it to terminate that deal if the population exceeds 10 million, which would in turn endanger its other pacts with the E.U.
I mean, keeping the Prussians out of your pure German….now that’s some cultural conservatism.