Emigration abroad: Taxes, rents and university fees penalise border areas

Five border provinces are among the top ten in the emigration towards foreign countries ranking: Bolzano first; Imperia second; Trieste fourth; Como sixth; Sondrio tenth. Then Gorizia, Varese and Aosta in twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth place. And again, up to position number twenty, Asti, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Biella and Milan, not all strictly on the border, but in a geographical location that may have been affected by a measure of a fiscal nature, the new frontier agreement between Italy and Switzerland, which may have prompted workers to transfer residence abroad.

Is there a common thread linking seemingly very different cities, but united by the fact that they are on the state border? With an easy joke, one would say that proximity certainly facilitates the crossing of the barrier. But it would remain a joke, not even the most successful.

Certainly the thread of the new provisions for the taxation of Italian-Swiss frontier workers may have convinced a substantial number of workers from Lombardy, Piedmont, Val d'Aosta and South Tyrol to opt for residence in Switzerland. The new agreement between Italy and Switzerland, we recall, which has been under discussion for more than five years, was approved in July 2023 and has been in force since January 2024. It stipulates that those hired after July 2023 in companies located within 20 kilometres of the border must be subject to concurrent taxation between Switzerland and Italy, which translates into a tax increase of approximately 30 per cent.

The great discussion from 2020 onwards has had a cascade on the years taken into consideration by the Sole 24 Ore analysis on Monday (2022-2024) and the confusion about the actual extent of the new taxation may have convinced many workers to opt for residence in Switzerland. This would partly justify the much above-average numbers in the provinces in Lombardy, Piedmont and partly South Tyrol, which are affected to a lesser extent by frontier work to Switzerland. The number of Italian frontier workers in Switzerland is 91,000 (out of a total of about 403,000) and in 2024 decreased by about thousand compared to the previous year. Thus, the announcement effect (in the three years) plus the choice of new cross-border commuters (in 2023) may have determined part of the above-average increase in emigrants abroad.

As for the other provinces, however, each one experiences specific situations. In the province of Bozen, for example, rising house prices and skyrocketing rents have convinced many young couples to take up residence in Austria, while keeping their job in South Tyrol. The low cost of university fees in Austria has also attracted many students who often stay abroad after finishing their studies. Similar dynamics are reported in Imperia, Trieste and Gorizia, cities that live in a perennial precarious border-crossing balance. That fluctuates over the years depending on housing prices, the cost of living and other contingent situations.