It's more complicated than that. When I moved there in the mid part of the first decade I needed a work permit despite coming from an EU member state. Then there has been a period of "unlimited immigration" from the EU but due to language issues and because it came about much later than other countries, most poor immigrants did not go to Switzerland but rather to the UK. British towns routinely have Polish shops on their high streets but I've never seen anything like that anywhere in Switzerland, it's simply not comparable. Differences in the welfare system and how aggressively jobs are required to move (which is technically possible under EU rules although most member states don't seem to enforce it) also cause this trend. Most "poor" immigrants to Switzerland are either from the Balkans and brought in under asylum during the Balkan conflicts, or German!

And recently a local worker preference law has been established, and the population voted to end freedom of movement with the EU. Like always with the EU, the people won the vote but lost the power, and so immigration rules weren't actually implemented. But it's still different to the experiences of other European states.

It's not really more complicated; it is strictly incorrect to claim that Switzerland has the power to restrict and filter immigrants which is what I was responding to.

Of course, it hasn't always been that way. Strictly speaking full EU freedom of movement has been in place since 2002 but like everything in Switzerland, it can take years for federal decisions to be reflected in local law.

I disagree strongly with your characterization of Swiss immigrants as being richer than those of the UK. The UK may have more (proportionally speaking) Poles, but Switzerland has a larger number of Kosovars, Serbs and other ex-Yugoslavia people who are even poorer. It also has a huge "poor" Portuguese immigrant population - mucher bigger per-capita than the Poles in the UK. On a per-capital basis, Switzerland has 3 times as many foreign-born than the UK. Both countries attract both highly paid immigrants and bottom quartile workers in large amounts.

The 2014 referendum has been already been translated into law and NO FILTERING has been introduced for EU citizens - it just means companies have to advertise the job to existing Swiss residents. Nothing substantial has changed.

The barriers to physically get in may not be high, but Switzerland is very strict on those who try to stay. Switzerland recently rejected the citizenship applications of girls who refused to swim in a communal pool with the opposite sex, and suspended the citizenship application of a family whose boys refused to shake a female teacher's hand. Migrants wearing pajamas around town and refusing to greet neighbors had their otherwise satisfactory applications rejected and were quickly deported.

> To receive Swiss citizenship, it’s not enough to show long-term residency, fluency in one of the country’s three official languages and knowledge of its history and geography. Applicant must also show they are integrated with Swiss society and their local community.

https://qz.com/720908/switzerland-denied-citizenship-to-musl...

Even if not a citizen, after only 5 years of living in Switzerland, you can hold a C-permit (which is like a green card), which means you have all rights of a Swiss with the only exception that you can't vote.