Proximity to Switzerland, a possibility and an issue for Haute-Savoie | EUROtoday

It's somewhat after 5 p.m., in Valleiry (Haute-Savoie), firstly of April. No want to have a look at the time to search out out, listening is sufficient on this border city positioned southwest of Geneva. The noise of vehicle site visitors saturates the place. And for good cause: the parade of vehicles crossing the village is incessant, primarily from Switzerland to France – within the morning, they go within the different course. Just like close to Saint-Julien-en-Genevois or Annemasse, somewhat additional to the east, in the identical division. The congestion of those roads alone symbolizes the challenges that this territory is dealing with as we speak.

“At this time, the border workers are returning home”, explains a thirty-year-old working within the city (she didn’t want to give her title). In Valleiry (1,748 inhabitants in 1990, 4,907 in 2020), 74% of employees work in Switzerland. “In the neighborhood where I live [à côté de la commune], there is a cross-border worker in each couple. It’s not possible to live here otherwise”she continues. Or, estimates one other Haut-Savoyard, Sélim Labaille, a 30-year-old father, “you have to make concessions. But I understand that they don't want to do it, I'm not throwing stones at the border workers. »

The latter can expect salaries up to three times higher than in France. The Swiss temptation is therefore strong. Sélim Labaille and his wife work at the French public hospital in Annecy and, further north, in La Roche-sur-Foron. They bought an apartment to renovate in the suburbs of Annecy on credit: 260,000 euros in total, for 80 square meters, in the only area that was financially accessible to them. “But I haven't put any money aside for a year, and for the first time since I worked for the hospital, nine years, my bank account was overdrawn. In the long term, only the Swiss salary can work. »

” Social cohesion “

In the center of Saint-Julien-en-Genevois (7,922 inhabitants in 1990, 15,739 in 2020), the owner of the bar-restaurant Le Galta is currently looking for the equivalent of an entire team. Lucas Daniel, 24, came to help him in the service and at the bar. He works here three days a week, for a net monthly salary of 1,200 euros, because he likes the boss. The rest of the time, he goes to work in Switzerland, twenty hours for 2,000 euros net. “It’s three minutes from here.”smiles the person who has simply settled on the Franco-Swiss border with the purpose of placing cash apart.

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