Placements of minors in border regions: Valais and Ticino
The project reconstructs the placement system for minors in Valais and Ticino, from the 1940s – the beginning of Switzerland’s economic boom, the professionalization of its social sector and its demographic transformation – to the economic crisis of the mid-1970s.
Project description (completed research project)
The project analyses the processes and dynamics that led two border cantons, Valais and Ticino, to manage compulsory social measures and placements of Swiss and foreign minors in either their cantonal territory or bordering provinces in Italy between the 1940s and the 1970s.
The key research questions are:
- How did social, political and institutional differences between the two cantons affect the placement of foreign minors? What were the differences in the German- and French-speaking regions of Valais?
- How did economic factors influence the decisions of both cantons, which still had poor and rural areas?
- What role did religious issues in these Catholic cantons play in institutions’ decisions?
- What relationships did cantonal institutions maintain with Italian ones?
Results
The summary of the results for this project are available here:
Original title
Placements of Swiss and foreign minors in border regions: The cases of the cantons of Valais and Ticino.