How To Explain The Swiss Vote Against The Free Movement Of Workers

On 8 February 2009, almost 60 percent of
Swiss voters supported the extension of the bilateral EU-Switzerland
agreement on the free movement of workers to workers from Romania and
Bulgaria. This clear endorsement of the free movement of Romanian and
Bulgarian workers in the Swiss labour market is noteworthy because the
Swiss People Party (SVP) at the time conducted an overtly xenophobic
campaign against it, depicting Romanian and Bulgarian workers as black
ravens that were pecking on a map of Switzerland. Whereas xenophobic
inclinations may be a recurrent feature of humanity, xenophobia can
hardly explain the sudden shift of Swiss voters against the free
movement of all EU workers in the referendum of 9 February 2014; notably
after a referendum campaign in which the SVP - for once - avoided the
use of xenophobic stereotypes on its major campaign poster. (Extract)