On January 5th, the Mirror published an article stating that “the Swiss government is offering young adults under 45 a bonus of 20,000 CHF, plus an extra 10,000 CHF per child, to settle down in the idyllic alpine village of Albinen, Switzerland.”
The newspaper then went on to say that successful candidates must buy a home in the community “worth over 200,000 CHF, commit to living in Switzerland for at least ten years, and become a Swiss citizen.”
Though the newspaper’s readers in the UK may not know it, there are several false claims, as well as missing information, in this story.
What are they?
The first error that immediately jumps to mind is that the offer was not made by “Swiss government” — that is, federal authorities — but by Albinen officials.
It was then accepted by 71 votes to 29 in a referendum held at the end of an hour’s meeting attended by around 100 residents of the Valais community.
But there is another piece of misinformation as well — namely, that new residents would become Swiss citizens at the end of the ten-year period.
In fact, while the newcomers had to commit to a 10-year stay in the community in order to receive the money, the candidates had to be Swiss citizens or permanent residents with a C permit.
But lastly and most most importantly, the article makes it sound as though this is a new offer by local authorities in Albinen, while in reality it dates from.... 2017 so 8 years ago.
There is currently no information on the village's official website to indicate whether the offer is still standing.
What really happened?
To boost Albinen’s declining population (which in 2017 stood at 248 mostly elderly residents), the village’s mayor at the time, Beat Jost, created a scheme to offer a financial incentive to attract people under 45 to move to the community.
He said the money set aside for this purpose “is an investment in our future,” since new arrivals would boost the local economy with taxes and spending.
As The Local reported in 2017, “families or individuals who decide to buy or build a house in Albinen would be eligible, under certain conditions, for a grant of 25,000 francs per adult and 10,000 francs per child. “ (The Mirror article had this amount as 20,000 francs).
That would mean 70,000 francs for a family of four – a real bonus towards the cost of a mortgage deposit which must usually be at least 20 percent of the property’s value.
There were conditions, however.
To be eligible, newcomers had to be under 45 and agree to live in the village for at least ten years.
The property to be bought or built had to have a minimum value of 200,000 francs, and had to be a permanent home, not a second residence.
What happened next?
The story was reported (or mis-reported is a better term) in international media, with many articles making it sound as though the offer were open to foreigners.
As a result, the mayor’s office received 12,000 requests from all over the world, prompting Jost to slam false media reports that had caused “misplaced excitement” by implying it would be easy for foreigners to take up the offer.
“There were people who arrived with their suitcases and asked where the money and the apartments were. It was crazy,” Jost said in 2021, four years after the scheme was launched.
Did the village’s plan ultimately work?
In 2018, a family from Aargau have become the first to take advantage of the financial incentive and moved to Albinen.
Since then, the village council has accepted 38 people under the scheme, including 11 children.
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