The BBC's Imogen Foulkes, in Geneva, says Switzerland has a long tradition of generosity towards asylum seekers - its proportion of refugees per head of population is twice the European average.
But the number of asylum seekers is rising sharply and is at its highest in a decade.
That, coupled with sharp rises in immigration overall, has led to public concern that too many people are coming to Switzerland, our correspondent says.
Switzerland counts one asylum seeker for every 332 inhabitants. The European average is one asylum seeker for every 625 inhabitants.
Human rights groups were naturally upset about this result and are trying to gain support to overturn the new rules, but as I have often mentioned, the increasing number of refugees and asylees in the world has forced European countries, especially a smaller one such as Switzerland (population about 8 million), to deeply contemplate their demographic futures.
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