{"id":3178,"date":"2012-11-06T13:59:30","date_gmt":"2012-11-06T13:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=3178"},"modified":"2012-11-06T13:59:30","modified_gmt":"2012-11-06T13:59:30","slug":"swiss-ecopop-group-forces-immigration-referendum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=3178","title":{"rendered":"Swiss Ecopop group forces immigration referendum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/ecopop.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3179\" title=\"ecopop\" src=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/ecopop-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/ecopop-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/ecopop-70x40.jpg 70w, https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/ecopop.jpg 464w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>A group of Swiss environmentalists has collected enough signatures to force a national referendum on immigration.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Ecopop group says natural resources are under increasing pressure from overpopulation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It wants annual population growth through immigration capped at 0.2% and a tenth of foreign aid to be used for birth control measures abroad.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Switzerland now has a population of eight million people \u2013 almost a quarter of them foreigners.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ecopop gathered a petition with 120,700 certified signatures \u2013 easily passing the 100,000 threshold needed for a referendum on the proposed new law.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe pressure on land, nature and the countryside is considerable, and quality of life is continuously deteriorating due to a lack of living space,\u201d said Ecopop member Philippe Roch, a former director of the Swiss environment department.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The group insists it is opposed to all forms of xenophobia and racism but says Switzerland must limit immigration to avoid urbanisation and to preserve agricultural land.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Under the Swiss system of direct democracy, referenda take place up to four times a year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Correspondents say the initiative reflects growing concern in Switzerland about overcrowding. The population has risen by some 15% since 1990.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In April, the Swiss government agreed to re-impose immigration quotas on workers from central and eastern EU countries \u2013 a decision criticised by EU officials.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Until 2011, Switzerland had a quota of 2,000 residency permits per year for citizens of the so-called \u201cA8\u2033 nations, which joined the EU in 2004.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The right-wing Swiss People\u2019s Party (SVP), which blames rising rents and crowded transport on immigration, has also gathered enough signatures to force a referendum on tougher immigration quotas. &#8211; BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of Swiss environmentalists has collected enough signatures to force a national referendum on immigration. The Ecopop group says natural resources are under increasing pressure from overpopulation. It wants annual population growth through immigration capped at 0.2% and a tenth of foreign aid to be used for birth control measures abroad. Switzerland now has &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=3178\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Swiss Ecopop group forces immigration referendum&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3],"tags":[2069,1064,2070,653],"class_list":["post-3178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-ecopop","tag-immigration","tag-population-control","tag-switzerland"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/ecopop.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3178"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3181,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3178\/revisions\/3181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}