I’m 21 years old and I currently live in Valais, Switzerland. I didn’t plan to end up here. I used to live in Geneva between 2015-2022 with my mother, but in 2022, only three months after I turned 18, she kicked me out. With nowhere else to go, I had to return to my father in Valais despite our difficult past. That’s why I’m here now. Since 2023, I’ve been trying to find a job. I apply to everything until there’s literally nothing left. But if you’re young, don’t have a diploma, don’t have connections, and don’t have money, it feels almost impossible to escape. I don’t live in a big city, and I can’t afford to travel to one. I receive about 500 CHF per month from social assistance. A round trip with regional and interregional trains costs between 60 and 80 CHF. That’s a huge part of my income just to try to reach a possible opportunity. Most of the time, I simply can’t afford it. I’m stuck where I am. It feels like the canton knows there are no real opportunities for young people like me, but nothing changes. Instead, they seem more focused on promoting tourism in places like Zermatt or Crans-Montana, while some of us can’t even find basic work or afford to leave. Even the social assistance offices know how hard it is to find work. There are so many people my age registered with social assistance, and most of them aren’t even eligible for unemployment benefits. They see young people struggling and often label us as lazy, like the older generation did when finding a job was simple. But we didn’t live in their time, when applying was almost a game. Today it’s impossible without money, connections, or experience. My family situation was unstable and violent from the beginning. My father was violent with me, even when I was a baby. My parents divorced when I was very young, mainly because of financial problems and unpaid bills. There was constant tension and arguments, and I grew up in that environment. Because of that, I was never able to fully focus on school like other kids. I was also heavily harassed at school and always felt different. At one point, I found documents in my mother’s room saying that I had autistic symptoms. I took photos of those papers with my phone because I wanted proof and to understand myself better. That same phone was later broken by my mother on the day she beat me. It was the same phone that contained the photos of the documents about my autistic symptoms. When she destroyed it, I lost both my phone and the only proof I had. In 2020, I started technical school, but I was last in my class. I had serious comprehension difficulties and couldn’t keep up. In 2021, I switched to general culture school. I managed to pass the year, but barely. I still didn’t feel like I belonged or had a future there. During lockdown in 2020, things at home became even worse. My mother beat me with a silicone cable until I was bleeding. There was blood on the cable and blood that hit my wardrobe. The blood stain stayed visible on my wardrobe until 2023. I had to see that mark on my arm every day for years. That same day, she broke my phone, the one with the photos of the documents about my autistic symptoms, and locked me in my room for a week. I had nothing. No phone, no books, nothing. I was only allowed to leave to eat. After that, I developed severe depression and panic attacks. I’ve been seeing a psychologist, but I only get an appointment roughly every 2 to 3 weeks. It feels like you have to pay to get shorter waiting times, even though my insurance is fortunately covered by social assistance. Progress is slow, and it’s frustrating because I still feel stuck and haven’t been able to move forward with my life. For a long time, I was afraid to apply for social assistance because in Valais you have to repay it later. It doesn’t feel like help, it feels like future debt. But in 2025, I had no choice. I couldn’t pay my health insurance, and now at 21, I’m probably already in debt for more than five figures. I also tried reintegration programs, hoping they would help me learn and find work. But I was removed from the program because I told them honestly that I didn’t know how to do certain tasks. It felt ironic, because reintegration is supposed to help people who don’t know yet. A lot of their programs are based on rigid and unrealistic rules, not adapted for someone with mental health struggles or developmental difficulties. Now I feel completely stuck. Every time I apply for jobs, they pick someone with more experience, diplomas, or connections. I’m scared that in 5 or 10 years, I’ll still be in the same place. Still stuck in Valais. Still in debt. Still dependent. Not because I want this life, but because I never had the foundation or support to build something stable. People see you and think you’re lazy. But they don’t see the abuse, the harassment, the mental health struggles, and the isolation behind you. I want to work. I want independence. I want a future. I just don’t know how to escape when you start from nothing. Sometimes I try to tell myself that I’m only 21 and that at some point these problems will disappear, but I can’t even predict what will happen to me in a month. The uncertainty is overwhelming. I translated this text into English to make my story accessible to everyone, even though I normally speak French since I live in romandy. I want to share my testimony and reach people who might understand submitted by /u/International-Ad-629
Originally posted by u/International-Ad-629 on r/Switzerland