Vlogger Cosmin Avram presented the life of a Romanian family from Switzerland. They explained that a salary of 4-5,000 euros per month (equivalent in Swiss francs) does not ensure a decent life for a family in one of the richest countries in Europe.
People get out of their Mercedes to buy second-hand clothes. PHOTO: captured by Cosmin Avram
Vlogger Cosmin Avram arrived, the other day, in a village in Switzerland, invited by two Romanians from Constanța who have been living in the country of cantons for 4 years.
Petrică and Andreea took the well-known traveler to two picturesque sights – Santis, one of the highest mountains in Switzerland, and the city of Saint Gallen.
“I don’t want to exaggerate, but I think it’s the most beautiful place I’ve visited so far, the most beautiful green place,” said Cosmin, in the vlog, about Switzerland.
“And Japan was amazing. It’s extraordinarily clean, just like here, but Switzerland is different, it’s much greener. In Japan we find, or at least I found, more concrete. Here you are in nature, in the middle of nature and I see that the grass is cut perfectly everywhere, even on the top of the mountain, even on the route I saw: everything is to the millimeter, Swiss precision, almost all the fields“, explained the vlogger.
The two Romanians from Constanța, who were Cosmin Avram’s hosts, have been in Switzerland for four years.
“We like it very much, but life is not that easy. Most of the prices are high, but for the beauty that is here it is worth it“, claimed Petrica.
“Prices are much lower in Germany”
For Romanians from the seaside, Switzerland was totally different. “Even though there are a lot of beautiful places like these in Romania, we didn’t have the opportunity to see them. You have a hard time accessing them in Romania”claimed Adreea.
“Here, all the villages have their own town hall that benefits from the fees from the cable car tickets. In Romania, there are several private companies. Here almost everything is “state”. And the transport companies are owned by the town halls here”says Petrica.
He previously lived in Germany for 4 years.
“The difference between Switzerland and Germany is not very big from a cultural point of view, but for example in Germany it is very difficult to get rent, whereas in Switzerland it is very easy if you have a stable job. In Germany you can get a job very easily, even if you don’t know the language very well. In Switzerland, it is very difficult to find a job. Only if you know the language very well and if you have a qualification, you can easily find a job. Besides that, here if you don’t have a job, it’s very difficult to find rent“, Petrica explains.
From the point of view of cleanliness, both countries are doing very well, he said.
The prices, however, are “much smaller in Germany”he says. But the quality of the products is superior in Switzerland. “For example, a chicken breast from Kaufland, taken from Germany, often has water in it, which in Switzerland does not happen.”
“I think all these things boil down to one word: education”
Cosmin Avram declared himself conquered by Switzerland: “So far I have found nothing to fault this place. We are in the country, in the mountains, in the wilderness, call it what you want, but in reality we are in a fairytale place, everything is done with taste, everything looks very, very beautiful, neat, clean. I think all these things boil down to one word education”.
Although the standard of living is very high, comparable to the Nordic countries, however, says Petrică, Finland, Switzerland are among the countries that have a very high level of suicides.
Petrică claims that in Switzerland the expenses are very high in a family and you can easily get into trouble if you don’t work for a month or two.
Cosmin tried a restaurant in St. Gall, where for a menu of beef steak with vegetables and fried potatoes about 20 euros (Cosmin did the conversion from francs to euro-no). A coffee was 4.5 euros, and a mulled wine costs about 5 euros. “Very good food,” he concluded.
In the center of St. Gall the vlogger found a second-hand clothing market and was impressed that people with expensive cars stopped by to buy: “In Switzerland, people wear second-hand clothes. Andreea is right, only in Romania is it a shame to buy second-hand clothes. People get out of their Mercedes and try on second-hand clothes.”
Why wouldn’t he return to Romania?
Cosmin asked the man from Constanta, who has been living in Switzerland for 4 years, if he has plans to return to the country: “Iwe will never return to Romania. If somehow the situation doesn’t work out here. If something makes it difficult, we will go to another country to Canada, Australia or even America”.
Asked “why?”, Petrică said: “life is not that easy. There are many difficulties that come your way, such as, if you want to start a company, for example, it is very difficult because of the authorizations, you need a lot of documents, you waste a lot of time at the counters. Here, you can do everything online, you don’t have to go anywhere to make an appointment.”
Petrică confessed that they have been thinking about returning home for a long time and, although in recent years they have notified “a little improvement, politically everything is the same or even worse.”
“An average salary of 4,000-5,000 francs does not ensure a decent living”
However, life in Switzerland is not easy. “If you don’t have a job, it’s also very difficult here. It is difficult even with a salary, if only one family member works, the expenses are very high for a family of four, like us and our children. No matter how much you save, after paying all the expenses, there is not much left, or in some cases, nothing at all.”says Petrica.
Even an average salary of 4,000-5,000 francs does not ensure a decent living, he says. “In a family, if two people work, they bring in 8-10,000 francs a month. With 8,000 francs he manages to pay his bills and live decently. I can also put something away”, explains the man from Constanta.
A decent living means spending a minimum of 3,000 francs, says Petrică. “If you want to have various subscriptions to the internet, or to cable TV, or to the gym, the expenses increase. “We have expenses of around 4,000 per month, there are months when the bills jump by 5,000“, says Petrica.
Asked if there’s one thing he doesn’t like about the Swiss, the man from Constanta claims that things have changed lately, but the elderly Swiss are “more fixist, they are very fixated on certain things. They want things done the way they know how, and if you do it even better or differently, they don’t like it. You have to do exactly as they say”.
“Wages in Switzerland are quite high, but compared to the expenses they are not high enough to cover the expenses in a family if only one person works. The bills in a family with two children, for example, reach from 3,000-4,000, maybe even 5,000”, details Petrică.
A salary of 4000-5000 francs is not much in Switzerland.
“In Germany, expenses are very low, food is much cheaper, but if I earn 2,000-3,000 euros it’s easy. There are many people who earn 1,500, which is about the minimum wage in Germany, where you have expenses of 800-900 euros. Instead, here the salary starts from 3,000 francs upwards and can reach 5-6,000 francs per construction site, where the work is even harder”it details.
Petrică claims that his wife, Andreea, does not work, because private kindergarten or nanny for the youngest child would be very expensive, and the tax would increase a lot. “If Andreea starts work and earns around 3,000 francs, we give 1,500 to the kindergarten, another 200 for transport. There are many expenses and at the end of the month there is nothing left. If he worked, our tax would increase and I would also take the lower salary”, explains Petrica.
The tax is different depending on how many family members you have, the more, the lower the tax.
He also claimed that private medical insurance, pension contribution and other taxes such as disability pension are paid from the salary. “There are also people who are on social assistance, but there is not much social assistance here, only unemployment and only disability pensions,” says Petrică.
