© Photograph by Onepau, Wikimedia Commons
In the Swiss canton of Valais, the village of Albinen has decided to pay money to each newcomer to avoid the rural exodus.
The rise of teleworking during the pandemic has pushed many people to leave the big cities and settle in the countryside. But the phenomenon is not enough to repopulate the thousands of small villages which have been emptying of their inhabitants for years and this is the case in Switzerland.
With our correspondent in Geneva, Jeremiah Lanche
In Switzerland, the village of Albinen in the canton of Valais may have found the solution to attract residents. The solution: pay each new arrival money and it works.
In a century, the population of Albinen has shrunk by almost 150 inhabitants. For a city, it is not much, but for a village of 243 souls today, it is enormous. In 2017, the mayor of Albinen, Beat Jost, therefore took the radical decision to allocate 25,000 Swiss francs (around 24,000 euros) to each person who would settle in the town. The news went around the world and candidates from all over the world arrived.
« We had 12,000 requests by email, WhatsApp or phone, explains the mayor of Albinen. There are people who arrived with their suitcases and asked where the money and the apartment were. It was crazy. »
A new birth record in the village
But what the foreign media forgot to mention is that you have to have a valid residence permit and the obligation to buy or renovate a house. Nothing to do with the jackpot that some thought they were getting at low cost.
The measure still worked fully, says Beat Jost: “ We accepted 38 people, including 12 children. And at the end of 2019, we had four births, it’s a new record for 20 years! »
Albinen is not yet saved, but the village is on the right track. The installation subsidy is still valid. Two new applications are also pending on the mayor’s office.
►To listen: Still efforts to be made to connect the territories in Europe
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