Bruce Armitage, of Carloway Mill Harris Tweed, said a stable workforce had been key to success.

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Returnees must adapt to a changed workplace, with a less-stable workforce and new technology, says Karen White, director of the Working Families Program at the Rutgers Center for Women and Work.

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Separately, the new immigration bill also is expected to offer many more visas for high-tech workers, new visas for agriculture workers, and provisions allowing some agriculture workers already in the U.S. a speedier path to citizenship than that provided to other illegal immigrants, in an effort to create a stable agricultural workforce.

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Indeed the foreign population needs to expand to 23% in the next 20 years if Switzerland's workforce is to remain stable.

ECONOMIST: Switzerland: Foreign relief | The