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There is also poverty in rich Switzerland – and increasingly so. Many people work their way from crisis to crisis, so to speak.
The young woman – let’s call her Manuela K. – lives in the canton of Aargau. She is married and has three preschool and primary school children. Even before the pandemic, she had to calculate precisely and could not offer her children the same thing as other parents:
Up in the mountains, with the kids in the snow, all these things. We haven’t been on vacation for three years. When you see other photos of their holiday apartments, I’m not jealous, but just a little sad. You give your best all day, and in the end it almost means that you are a ‘jammer’.
When Manuela K.’s husband was put on short-time work at his workplace in an industrial company, suddenly another 20 percent of his income was missing: “At first it was a big shock.” The financial effects were not yet foreseeable. «It was only over time that I realized that it was simply no longer enough, not even for the important things. Rent, health insurance, basic needs – we had to slim down everywhere. ”
In an emergency, she turned to a Caritas advisor, says Manuela K. “She listened to me with all her heart, I felt very much in good hands.”
The fear of the next wave
In addition to mental support, the aid organization also gave the family a helping hand financially – a one-off. According to its own information, Caritas has distributed a total of ten million francs from a Swiss Solidarity collection to around 22,000 people since the beginning of the pandemic. Manuela K. decided not to go to social welfare. She and her advisor assumed that short-time work and the associated restrictions due to the pandemic would be unique.
Legend:
In view of possible new corona restrictions, hundreds of thousands in Switzerland are currently calculating more closely and hope for support – even if many do not say it openly.
Keystone
When her husband was able to work fully again after a few months, they felt better again, says Manuela K. “We were able to regenerate something and gradually pay off the bills.” But the fear remained. Because in the meantime it has not been enough to accumulate reserves. “Now there is again the uncertainty that there could be short-time working again in January / February.”
Hardly any niches for the less qualified
This is the case with many in Switzerland. Caritas estimates the number of people affected or threatened by poverty at around 1.3 million. Many of them work their way from crisis to crisis, so to speak. They suffered more from the pandemic, as Emanuela Chiapparini, poverty researcher at the Bern University of Applied Sciences, says: “People affected by poverty who have less good training or are in insecure employment are the greater risk group. Sometimes her social contacts are also limited and the crisis overtakes her more severely: You can’t just drive your car out into nature. “
Legend:
The bottom line – this is also shown by the latest Caritas figures – poverty rose again not only worldwide, but also in Switzerland before the pandemic.
Keystone
With digitization and automation, the world of work is also changing dramatically, explains poverty researcher Chiapparini: “More skilled workers are needed, repetitive work is being automated. There are fewer and fewer niches in which not so highly qualified people can contribute their talents. ” The poverty researcher believes that it is up to companies not to simply cut jobs for poorly qualified people, but to keep them where possible.
In addition to work, those affected by poverty need, above all, low-threshold support, says Chiapparini, where they can be listened to and help shape offers in order to look for ways out of poverty. That is partly missing in the otherwise well-developed social network in Switzerland: “There are many efforts, for example in social services and the political communities. One tries to create bodies in which those affected by poverty can contribute. But there is simply room for improvement. “