Ticino: Pensioners want to leave

Increasingly more German-speaking Swiss are turning their backs on Ticino. Melanie Eichenberger, swissinfo.ch

They want to get out of the sunny region as quickly as possible. Many older German-speaking Swiss want to leave Ticino. But it is not always easy.

Monika Gmür, who will soon turn 70, moved to Ticino 15 years ago. At that time she bought a bed-and-breakfast, which she has managed ever since. Now she has decided to sell it and is considering whether or not to return to German-speaking Switzerland.

“I miss the cultural offerings of Zurich, and I still have a social circle there,” she says. In Ticino, she says, it is difficult to make friends because the people of Ticino are very Italian-oriented. Family is more important to them than anything else. But Gmür also knows she would miss the leisure of the lifestyle in Ticino.

70-year-old Susanna Tosun feels similarly. She has lived in Ticino for 14 years – and now she has made up her mind. She wants to leave. “I would never have thought I would leave, but I want to go where the people are. It’s too quiet here for me. I miss the cultural life of a big city.”

Tosun is now looking for a flat in the Aarau area, near her friends. She knows that she will miss her dream apartment with a view over Lake Maggiore. She finds the search for a flat exhausting. But for now, she still has the strength.

It is difficult to estimate how many people feel the same. But the figures from the Ticino statistics office show that as their ages increase, significantly more German-speaking Swiss emigrate than immigrate.

Obstacles to entering a retirement home

Jennifer Kerner has been working as a social worker at Pro Senectute for ten years. She knows many people who are in a similar situation as Tosun. But talking the step to return is not easy for many of those she knows. They have grown fond of Ticino.

It becomes very difficult when a person with reduced funds wants to move directly from their own flat in Ticino into a retirement home in German-speaking Switzerland. The supplementary benefits might not be enough to cover the costs of a retirement home. This is because the benefits are calculated by the previous canton of residence, in this case, Ticino.

 “The benefits provided by canton Ticino can be lower than those of Zurich. So it is almost impossible to move directly from your own flat in Ticino to a retirement home near your children in Zurich,” Kerner points out.

Plan in advance

Kerner and her colleagues in the social services of the Ticino Pro Senectute are trying to make the German-speaking Swiss aware of this problem at an early stage.

Ideally, they return to German-speaking Switzerland before they become frail, so that they can live in their own flat in German-speaking Switzerland for a few more years. This diminishes the likelihood that they will spend their twilight years alone in a retirement home in Ticino, far away from family.