Why was the Swiss hard-right’s anti-immigration bid rejected by voters?

For many months prior to the June 14th national referendum, the initiative to cap Switzerland’s population growth by limiting the number of immigrants from the EU had been a highly controversial and divisive issue. The initiative, instigated by the populist Swiss People’s Party (SVP), stipulated that “Switzerland’s permanent resident population must not exceed ten million people before 2050. Voters' motivationsThough for a while it looked like the proposal would win, in the end, nearly 55 percent of voters turned against it. It found that both supporters and opponents of the SVP proposal had been swayed by a single (though different) argument. READ MORE: How bad would worker shortages be if Switzerland backs anti-immigration proposal?