I don't think it's fair to attribute this to xenophobia. You need to have some soft quota because immigration involves people; and people issues are complex to manage. Absorbing 80,000 new immigrants into population of 8 million is a huge deal.

Ordinary Swiss workers will ask themselves, "who benefits from this immigration?" The 50/50 referendum result is indicative of people's uncertainty about the answer to that question; and not necessarily that of their xenophobic attitude.