Last week, a representative of the Swiss rightist party SVP said in a television interview that Swiss citizen should vote against letting EU nationals come and work in Switzerland.
In an absolute populist fashion, he said that should this be approved, many Romanian and Bulgarian Rroma would come and seek asylum in Switzerland. That this "argument" is totally illogical is clear: Romanian and Bulgarian citizen no longer need a visa to come to Switzerland, and this since several years.
Once again, the spectrum of an "invasion" of Gypsies, of course, in many people's mind "stealing and begging", is misused.
That some Rroma from Romania and Bulgaria (roughly 800 according to official statistics) came to Switzerland and asked for asylum has more to do with the fact that the Swiss authorities gave a premium of 700 Swiss france to returning refugees. This practice is now being stopped.
In brief, if the 3.5 million Romanian and Bulgarian Rroma had decided to leave their respective countries, they could have done so much earlier. That they did not do it shows that in fact, they will, for the most part stay at home.