I spent five days in Switzerland, and write several essays over the travels and observations there, but there is one particular topic which I kinda noticed....over and over (didn't matter if I was in Lucerne, Basel, Bern or Zurich. There just aren't any beggars.
Over the past three or four years, no matter where I went in Germany, and most other European countries.....I came across beggars. In the past six months here in central Germany....it's become a 'normal' event and I was approached five times in one single day just last month.
In Switzerland? ZERO. Not a single person on the street, or around any cafe. I probably walked over 25 kilometers in the past seventy-two hours, and not one single beggar.
The Swiss answer? They designed a law in the spring of 2017 (amid a lot of negativity), which passed through and makes begging a messy situation. If found on the streets and begging, it's a fine between 50 and 100 SF (roughly $50 and $100). It increases each time after that. The drive here? If you are unemployed or disabled, the Swiss system is designed to 'help' you. The other point is that if you came to Switzerland to be a migrant or immigrant....they kinda expect you to work on the language business ahead of time, and quickly find work. Slacking off and just trying to live off the street is not a helpful plan if you wanted to live in Switzerland.
The court system challenged? Oh yes, and they refused to hinder or stop the law.
What gets me is that a decade ago, you just didn't observe much begging going on in Germany, and this whole thing has gone into turbo over the past two or three years.
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