LUGANO - Ticino's economy still runs on a daily crossing from Lombardy. Hospitals, building sites and hotels would stop without frontier workers. Unions say some employers use that fact to hold down local wages. Employer groups say the canton would shrink if the border ever truly closed.
Housing is the other half of the quarrel. Rents in Lugano and Mendrisio stay high for a region with weaker pay than Zurich. Young Ticinesi move north or across the border the other way, to Milan internships, and come back at weekends.
Rails before slogans
Cantonal deputies have asked SBB and Trenord for more reliable peak trains through Chiasso. A missed connection there is not a lifestyle inconvenience. It is a late shift in a care home. National transport money, including the control-system upgrade, rarely lists Lugano first.
The EU agreements before parliament this month, outlined in our session preview, include immigration safeguards that Ticino politicians will read line by line.