Emigration is a global phenomenon and no place is immune from it. That includes extremely beautiful villages in the mountains of Switzerland. Albinen is one such village and is working very hard to save itself from extinction. The 240-member community of the village is willing to pay 70,000 Swiss francs to outsiders for settling in their village.
The members of the village believe that this handsome amount will be enough to target a family of four to move to Albinen. The adults stand to receive 25,000 francs and children receive 10,000 francs each. This policy just might save the village from extinction.
Furthermore, you need to buy a house or renovate an existing one in the village and the building must be worth at least 200,000 francs and serve as a permanent address and not a vacation home. If you decide to accept the villagers offer but back out on your word, you will have to pay back every last franc.
The village of Albinen lies only 6 km away from the Leukerbad spa resort and has lost three families in the last couple of years to the city. These families took with them 8 children which led to the closure of the village school. The villagers admit that jobs are not in abundance but the towns of Visp and Sion are only half an hour away by car. The villagers hope that this plan of their works, and “In a best-case scenario, even the village school will reopen,”
It is still unknown what the fate of this village will be. The highest population count was 380 and that was back in 1900, more than a century ago. If it has survived a century with such a population, maybe all hope is not yet lost and we might see it coming back to life.
You can take a look at the beautiful village in the video below:
