Due to significant outward migration, the population of Switzerland’s Onsernone Valley, in canton Ticino, has dwindled to just 600 people. But now unconventional measures are being deployed to help ‘repopulate’ the village.
The picturesque community, located about 26 km by winding roads from Locarno, has much to offer in terms of natural beauty: gorges, forests, and rugged stone architecture that is typical of many old Ticino villages.
However, for all of its attributes, Onserone lacks one very important resource: people.
A village with a mission
An average age of its residents is 55, so the community is desperately trying to revive and revitalise itself, and it is bending backwards to attract new – younger – arrivals.
Its goal is to attract one to two new families each year.
To make that happen, officials are granting newcomers relocation grants, affordable public transport passes, firewood, wood pellets, as well as free (Italian) language courses to facilitate better integration of people coming from Switzerland’s other linguistic regions.
But there is more: To boost the birth rate and ensure new generation of pupils for the local school – which now counts only 13 students – the village will also provide grants of 5,000 francs to couples who require in-vitro fertilisation.
Not the first time
While providing money for fertility treatments as a way to entice new residents is unprecedented, Onserone is not the first Swiss village trying to boost its demographic growth through financial incentives.
In 2017, Albinen, in canton Valais, made worldwide news when it offered a grant of 25,000 francs per adult and 10,000 francs per child to young people who’d settle in the village.
Though strict conditions were attached to the offer – such as residents of Switzerland aged under 45 and committed to living in the village for at least 10 years – the community received thousands of requests from all over the world.
READ MORE: Swiss village wants to offer families 70,000 francs to go and live there
As a local official, Beat Jost, later reported, “There were people who arrived with their suitcases and asked where the money and the apartments were. It was crazy.”
Ultimately, however, dozens of eligible candidates were accepted and settled in Albinen.
