I see the Swiss want to give themselves a chance to contain the rampant densification, urbanization, metropolization which risks breaking a certain “Swiss” way of life of space, calm and abundant nature, by implementing a nationwide 10-million cap until at least 2050. Alright. But on the topic of preservation: when does it stop being preservation… and it becomes museumification? Last time I checked, the total fertility rate (TFR) reached a new low last year, going down at 1.28 children per woman , getting still further away than the replacement TFR of 2.1 in 1970, 56 years ago. Even the most rural cantons of Schwyz and Uri, in 2024, were barely over 1.4 when the national rate was 1.29. And that’s even accounting the fact that the children there usually end up leaving the countryside to go work in bigger towns or the cities, or even emigrate (the 27th canton of Switzerland is abroad). So what happens when these villages have no renewal, if there’s no immigration to compensate the lack of natality and young people wanting to stay? Either immigration, internal migration… or extinction. You’ve got villages in Jura, Luzern-Land, Oberwallis, rural Ticino… who end up literally paying people to come to live there. Touristic alpine villages like Zermatt and St-Moritz near 50% of foreigners, and that’s not even accounting the naturalized immigrants. Täsch, which serves as a Zermatt dormitory town, had 62% of foreigners and is even the only Swiss commune where Swiss is not the biggest nationality (Portuguese is). So when does “preservation” starts becoming museumification if the Swiss don’t actually want to preserve these villages by their own behavior (make enough children, make them stay in the village, accept to do manual labor) and only want to see them preserved? You can’t have your cake and eat it too. I see the Swiss, when presented by the NZZ that Japan, who doesn’t want immigration, is stagnating since 35 years… in answer they see Japan because “at least it’s not Germany” as an example but… do they know that the Japanese do the jobs that the Swiss hand to the foreigners? Would the Swiss accept to do the manual labor again? The insane work culture, Hikikomori, high suicide rates and so on? In my opinion, the increased artificialization of the soil is the result of our own behaviors: we want less manual jobs, higher wages, more comfort, faster lifestyles, job hopping… the same behaviors which lead to the urbanization. You can’t do that AND then place a lid on it and say “hey, it’s full now!”. But that’s my two cents and I’m more than open to other points of view. I was intially for the initiative because I agree that Switzerland has a certain traditional way of life that people cherish. But you can’t simply just contemplate it: you gotta live it. And I get the impression that the Swiss want to live super modern lifestyles whilist keeping old villages. But the Waldstätten in the 13 and 14th centuries didn’t simply “contemplate” the villages, they built them, they exhausted themselves, they survived hard and long winters. submitted by /u/NtsParadize
Originally posted by u/NtsParadize on r/Switzerland