Talent, the cross-border workforce and the outlook

Who works in Ticino's technology sector

The knowledge infrastructure described in this chapter employs several hundred researchers and staff. IDSIA had 130 employees in 2023 and the CSCS 127 in 2024, recruited from more than twenty countries and working in English.¹ USI and SUPSI together educate several thousand students. The technology departments of banks, the software companies and the start-ups of the region add further jobs. The labour market for these specialists is international. Researchers at IDSIA and the CSCS come from Italy, Germany, the rest of Europe, India, China and the Americas. Software developers and data scientists in Lugano companies are frequently Italian, either resident in Ticino or commuting from Lombardy.

The cross-border workforce is a structural feature of the Ticino economy, as Chapter H.I describes. In the second quarter of 2026 the canton counted 79,121 cross-border commuters (frontalieri), 0.6 per cent fewer than a year earlier, out of about 414,000 in Switzerland as a whole.² Most of them work in the service sector. The financial sector and the information technology sector rely on them to a significant degree, because the local labour market of a canton of fewer than 400,000 inhabitants cannot supply all the specialists required. Commuters from Lombardy bring qualifications from the universities of Milan, Pavia, Como and Varese, among them the Politecnico di Milano, one of Europe's leading technical universities. For Ticino employers the proximity of Milan is thus both a source of talent and a source of competition, because Milan offers more positions in technology and finance and, since the 2010s, an attractive environment for young professionals.

Permits, taxes and competition for specialists

Citizens of the European Union and EFTA can work in Switzerland under the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons, either as residents or as cross-border commuters with a G permit.³ For specialists from third countries, admission is subject to the annual quotas fixed by the Federal Council and to the requirements of the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act. The act limits admission to managers, specialists and other qualified workers and requires the employer to show that no suitable candidate from Switzerland or the EU/EFTA could be found.⁴ Graduates of Swiss universities from third countries may remain in Switzerland for six months after graduation to look for a job and may be admitted if their employment is of high scientific or economic interest.⁵ The rules matter for the research institutions and for technology companies that recruit internationally. The Chiasso fintech promoters of 2017 already identified immigration restrictions as an obstacle to recruiting scarce specialists.⁶

Taxation influences the decisions of both employees and employers. The agreement between Switzerland and Italy on the taxation of cross-border workers, in force since 17 July 2023 and applicable from 1 January 2024, introduced concurrent taxation of new cross-border workers in both States, which reduced the net advantage of working in Ticino while living in Italy, as Chapter H.I explains.⁷ Italy for its part has used tax incentives to attract qualified workers back from abroad. The regime for "impatriati", reformed by Legislative Decree No. 209 of 27 December 2023, exempts part of the employment income of qualified workers who move their tax residence to Italy, a measure that competes directly with Ticino for Italian specialists who have worked abroad.⁸ Salaries in Ticino are lower than in the rest of Switzerland, as Chapter E.I shows, which narrows the advantage over Milan for specialists who can choose.

Notes

1. laRegione, 27 September 2023 (above); CSCS brochure 2024 (above). ↩
2. Federal Statistical Office figures as reported in "Frontalieri: calano ancora in Ticino", Tio.ch, 6 August 2026, https://www.tio.ch/ticino/attualita/1942262/frontalieri-calano-ancora-in-ticino. ↩
3. Agreement of 21 June 1999 between the Swiss Confederation and the European Community and its Member States on the Free Movement of Persons (AFMP), SR 0.142.112.681, Annex I, Art. 7 ("Abhängig beschäftigte Grenzgänger"), text at https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-it/0.1/0.14/0.142.112.681-annexI-lvlu1-lvlII-7-35.html; see Chapter H.I. ↩
4. Federal Act on Foreign Nationals and Integration of 16 December 2005 (FNIA), SR 142.20, Art. 20 ("Begrenzungsmassnahmen": the Federal Council may limit the number of first short-stay and residence permits), Art. 21 para. 1 (admission only if no suitable worker from Switzerland or a free-movement State can be found) and Art. 23 para. 1 (permits only for "Führungskräften, Spezialistinnen und Spezialisten und anderen qualifizierten Arbeitskräften"), text at https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/1/14/142.20-20-23.html, https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/1/14/142.20-21-24.html and https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/1/14/142.20-23-27.html. ↩
5. FNIA (above), Art. 21 para. 3 (holders of a Swiss university degree may be admitted if their employment is "von hohem wissenschaftlichem oder wirtschaftlichem Interesse" and are provisionally admitted for six months after completing their studies to find such employment). ↩
6. cash.ch, 24 November 2017 (above). ↩
7. Agreement between the Swiss Confederation and the Italian Republic on the taxation of cross-border workers of 23 December 2020; see Chapter H.I. The SR number 0.642.045.43 belongs to the earlier Agreement of 3 October 1974 on the taxation of cross-border workers and the financial compensation in favour of the Italian border municipalities (https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/0.6/0.64/0.642.045.43-1-4.html). ↩
8. Decreto legislativo 27 dicembre 2023, n. 209, Art. 5 (new regime for lavoratori impatriati, applicable from 2024); see Chapter H.II. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.