[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 116 (Tuesday, September 26, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1594]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     COMMENDING THE PEOPLE OF SWITZERLAND FOR REJECTING A LIMIT ON 
                               FOREIGNERS

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                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 26, 2000

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, we tend to be quick to criticize and slow to 
praise. Earlier the Swiss were subjected to intense international 
criticism for the policies and practices of Swiss banks during World 
War II. The Swiss government and Swiss banks have moved in the right 
direction since that matter became an issue of international concern.
  Mr. Speaker, this past weekend the people of Switzerland in a 
national referendum demonstrated their willingness to act in a 
remarkably enlightened fashion on an issue that is sensitive and that 
has been subject to demagoguery. By a vote of nearly 64 percent, Swiss 
voters decisively rejected a proposal to reduce the number of 
foreigners in their country to 18 percent of the total population. A 
majority of voters in all of the 26 Swiss cantons rejected the 
proposal. To their credit, the Swiss Cabinet urged voters to reject the 
proposal.
  This was a serious issue, Mr. Speaker, because foreigners currently 
make up about 19.3 percent of the population of Switzerland--some 1.4 
million out of a population of 7.2 million, almost one in five 
residents of the country, are foreigners. A quarter of the Swiss work-
force is foreign. These figures are high even by European standards. 
Austria and Sweden, both of which have among the highest foreign 
population in the nations of the European Union, have only about one in 
nine foreigners living in their countries.
  Mr. Speaker, the action of the Swiss people in this referendum was 
enlightened and informed, and it dealt a blow in the fight against far-
right and neo-Nazi fringe groups, who support placing limits on 
foreigners in Switzerland. It is important that we acknowledge and 
commend the Swiss people and the Swiss government on this decisive and 
most encouraging result.

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