Eastern Switzerland Graubünden municipalities to share the costs of travelers in solidarity

Any social costs for Swiss nationals with a nomadic lifestyle should now be borne jointly by all Graubünden municipalities. The cantonal government is pursuing this goal with a revision of the law.

Possible support services for so-called itinerants should no longer be a criterion when a municipality decides whether to offer a transit or permanent pitch on its territory. This was announced by the government on Thursday. With a partial revision of the law on support for the needy, it wants to achieve a solidarity-based distribution of any social welfare costs among all municipalities.

Municipalities that have a transit area or a place for travellers with Swiss nationality and provide support services should be able to claim these costs from the canton. The canton would initially bear the costs and then distribute them to all municipalities in the following year based on population figures.

According to the press release, the government is keen to ensure that there is a sufficient number of places for Swiss nationals with itinerant lifestyles to pass through and stay in the long term. In this way, their tradition and culture can be preserved.