20140209

40. Border



If you ride the train from Waldshut in Germany to Koblenz in Switzerland, you'll cross over the border in/at the Rhine and see something like this.

Today there was a referendum/vote to decide whether Switzerland should change the treaty that it has had with the EU until now which allowed EU nationals free access to the Swiss labor market. The change would mean that the EU people would be treated as citizens of non-EU countries are treated.

As I write this, the results have just come in, and it shows the country split almost perfectly: 49.7% no to 50.3% yes. It's too early for me to find up-to-date analysis in English, but here's a piece from this morning:

<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/09/swiss-vote-eu-immigration-referendum>

2 comments:

Tash said...

My son and I were in CH for 10 days last summer. Visited The town of Rhinefelden first... loved the beautiful old town and the friendly people.
When we were in Zurich, we noticed so many German 30-somethings working there. Interesting about the even split in the vote. I'd vote for either all countries to have same access or none. (But that's just a personal bias because I'd like my son to have an opportunity to work and live in CH for a little while.)

blogger tset said...

Hi Tash,
I hope your son does get to spend some time in Zurich. Apropos the vote: I myself was in the "other" group and never got the advantages of the EU treaties, so I don't have a personal affinity. See you!