[T]he Swiss government on Wednesday announced a new policy to cap residence permits for all of Western Europe. Switzerland, which is not part of the EU but joined the Schengen bloc that allows freedom of movement of people across European borders, says that it is being overwhelmed by arrivals from across the continent, to the tune of 80,000 people each year.
h/t Adrian
Oy, you mean the Swiss wish to remain Swiss? The NERVE of some people.
Only 80,000 per year, peanuts.
While I detest bureaucratic inefficiencies more than anyone, what’s very striking about the article is that the common theme amongst all of the immigrants – including the author – is: “It’s our right to move to your country if we so choose.” Ummmm, no it’s not.
This is so reminiscent of the No Borders fringe nitwits here in Canada who constantly display themselves to be amongst the most selfish members of our society.
Canada is calling.
Good comment, Robert. I read the link, and the sense of entitlement was palpable.
And I’m sure her apartment in France is in the middle of a Moslem banlieue.
Europeans welcome, people from third-world shitholes can stay home?
Absolutely! These are the refugees we should be taking.
Capital controls and the outrageous central bank policy of pegging to the Euro were bad enough, not they’re strangulating the free movement of people.
“It’s our right to move to your country if we so choose.” Ummmm, no it’s not.
Yes it is (barring exigent circumstances), and a free nation respects that right.
glasnost – Knowing next to nothing about Switzerland I tended to agree with your “peanuts” comment about their 80,000 immigrants per year. And then I looked around Wikipedia to find that Switzerland’s population [2012] was 8.02 million. Canada’s is just a hair under 35 million, so 4.36 times theirs. So 4.36 times their 80,000 would be 349,000 for Canada; while our numbers are roughly 275,000 per year. I’m not sure how they identify or define it but of Swiss “registered residents”, 24% are “foreign”. Those are big percentages by anyone’s standards, and we’ve all read about the societal results of this recent influx and self-ghettoization. I’m amazed that in Politically Correct Europe the Swiss think they can get away with attempting self preservation through limiting the immigrant onslaught. The nerve!
No, it isn’t. Anyone may apply, but it isn’t a right to be given a place.
Nonsense. That has never been the case; anywhere, anytime. Why don’t you try moving to Switzerland and see how it goes?
Switzerland historically has been a difficult place in which to establish residence, very difficult for citizenship. With reason, one of which is that when the Swiss talk about single-digit unemployment, they mean a number of individuals that can be counted on the fingers of both hands.
Like many countries in Europe, the Swiss brought in “GastArbeiteren” (guest-workers) in the `70s when they experienced a labour shortage. Unlike other places, when the jobs dried up the Swiss sent the GastArbeiteren home.
Oh my – slovenly. “Gastarbeiter”, singular and plural. My apologies.
That has never been the case; anywhere, anytime
In practice, but in principal rights are absolute.
And if what the rest of what you right is true then the Swiss are fools. Immigration decreases unemployment.
Get off my lawn!
“It’s our right to move to your country if we so choose.”
Yes it is, and a free nation respects that right.
~LAS
Rubbish. This so-called “right” abolishes the concept of ‘nation’, and as such it is therefore absurd to claim that any ‘nation’ respects such a ‘right’.
Freedom is not a suicide pact.
LAS 9:30 PM
“Immigration decreases unemployment.”
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to make such a post and forever remove all doubt.