“Foreigners” in modern Switzerland. Immigration issues in federal popular votes after 2000

Objectives:
Switzerland did not become an immigrant country until the end of the 19th century. Since then, the percentage of foreigners in this country has grown quite quickly and by 2021 it had exceeded 25%. Conservative groups are trying to counteract such a significant presence of immigrants in Swiss society, including the use of the popular vote. In the period 2000-2021, a total of 16 votes were held on matters relating to foreigners. The most talked about popular votes concerned the ban on the building of minarets (2009) and the ban on covering the face in public places (2021). The aim of the study is to analyze all the popular votes on foreigners’ affairs conducted in the years 2000-2021.

Material and methods:
The material for the study was obtained from the official website of the Swiss Confederation www.admin.ch, which contains a full archive of all popular votes. The method used in the study is qualitative content analysis.

Results:
The results of popular votes devoted to various aspects of the influx and presence of foreigners express understanding and concern for the position of this social category but sometimes lead to a deterioration of their situation.

Conclusions:
Swiss society manifests an ambivalent attitude towards immigrants.

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