GENEVA: Swiss families priced out of Geneva and forced to live just across the border in France are reeling from another blow: their children are now being elbowed out of Genevan schools.
The Geneva authorities’ decision to bar pupils who live in the Swiss city’s surrounding French suburbs and villages has left parents angry, children worried, and French municipalities fuming at having to absorb more than 2,000 extra kids into their classrooms.
“We’ve become second-class Swiss citizens,” lamented Joana, a 35-year-old mother of two, declining to give her surname for professional reasons.
Like many cross-border commuters, Joana, who works in health care, left Geneva due to the lack of affordable housing.
“We agreed to leave our sub-standard home in the city center to move to the countryside – but crossing the border was conditional on access to Swiss schools,” she said.
Home to numerous international institutions, Geneva is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in.
Its position is geographically curious: the Swiss city is almost entirely surrounded by France. Nowhere in the Geneva canton is more than 5.5 kilometers from the French border.
Around 115,000 people work in Geneva but live across the border, where the cost of living is cheaper.
‘We’re not happy’
The French village of Bossey is home to cross-border workers, many of them Swiss nationals who cannot afford to live in Geneva.
Its mayor, Jean-Luc Pecorini, can see the border from his office, less than 100 meters away on the other side of the highway.
“We’re not happy,” he said, evoking a sentiment shared by other French mayors.
He called Geneva’s decision – taken in June and coming into force at the start of the next school year in September 2026 – “abrupt.”
Opening a new classroom would cost around €80,000 ($93,000), he explained.
A source with knowledge of the figures, who did not want to be identified, said around 2,500 pupils would initially be affected, followed by “a steady stream of students” who would otherwise have gone to Swiss schools later on.
While some are French, 80 percent of those affected are Swiss.
The financial consequences for France are estimated at around €60 million in schooling and infrastructure costs, plus another €15 million a year thereafter, the source said.
Geneva’s demographic growth
Geneva is refusing to budge, citing demographic pressure and a shortage of school places.
The change represents “a saving of just over 27 million Swiss francs ($34 million) over four years,” the Genevan authorities said.
Roberto Balsa, a 47-year-old cross-border IT worker, said the news was “very brutal” for his seven-year-old daughter.
Some parents have filed legal appeals in Geneva, while others have signed an online petition.
Emmanuel, a father of four affected by the decision, who did not want to give his surname, called Geneva’s attitude “discriminatory,” noting that so-called “frontalier” workers like himself pay their taxes in Switzerland, with only a third remitted to France.
France’s Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes regional prefecture said that French authorities “can no longer accept” Geneva shifting the impact of its problems onto neighboring France “without any real consideration of the financial impact.”
By kicking out pupils, most of whom are Swiss and intend to work in Switzerland, “Geneva is exporting the burden of schooling to France, while our schools are already under severe pressure in terms of capacity,” it said.
Border order: Geneva schools kick out Swiss kids living in France
https://arab.news/n86sb
Border order: Geneva schools kick out Swiss kids living in France
- Home to numerous international institutions, Geneva is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in
- Around 115,000 people work in Geneva but live across the border, where the cost of living is cheaper
Japan’s traditional kimonos are being repurposed in creative and sustainable ways
- A genuine silk kimono, which literally means ‘worn thing,’ lasts a hundred years or more
- In a Japanese family, it’s handed down over generations like heirloom jewelry, artworks and military medals
TOKYO: The kimono, that elaborate, delicate wrap-around garment worn by geisha and samurai from centuries back, is getting a vibrant remake, appreciated these days for a virtue that’s more relevant than ever: sustainability.
A genuine silk kimono, which literally means “worn thing,” lasts a hundred years or more. In a Japanese family, it’s handed down over generations like heirloom jewelry, artworks and military medals.
It never goes out of style.
The design of the kimono and accompanying “obi” sash has remained basically the same since the 17th century Edo period depicted in Akira Kurosawa samurai movies.
But today, some people are taking a different creative approach, refashioning the traditional kimono, and also taking apart and resewing them as jackets, dresses and pants.
“I noticed that a lot of beautiful kimono is just sleeping in people’s closets. That’s such a waste,” said Mari Kubo, who heads a kimono-remake business called K’Forward, pronounced “K dash forward.”
Hers is among a recent surge in such services, which also turn old kimono into tote bags and dolls.
The most popular among Kubo’s products are “tomesode,” a type of formal kimono that is black with colorful, embroidered flowers, birds or foliage at the bottom.
She also creates matching sets, or what she calls “set-ups.” A tomesode is turned into a jacket with its long, flowing sleeves intact, and its intricate patterns placed at the center in the back. She then takes a kimono with a matching pattern to create a skirt or pants to go with the top. Sometimes, an obi is used at the collar to add a pop of color.
Kubo said many of her customers are young people who want to enjoy a kimono without the fuss.
A remade kimono at K’Forward can cost as much as 160,000 yen ($1,000) for a “furisode,” a colorful kimono with long sleeves meant for young unmarried women, while a black tomesode goes for about 25,000 yen ($160).
Reuse and recycle
What Tomoko Ohkata loves most about the products she designs using old kimonos is that she doesn’t have to live with a guilty conscience, and instead feels she is helping solve an ecological problem.
“I feel the answer was right there, being handed down from our ancestors,” she said.
Recycling venues in Japan get thousands of old kimonos a day as people find them stashed away in closets by parents and grandparents. These days, Japanese generally wear kimonos just for special occasions like weddings. Many women prefer to wear a Western-style white wedding dress rather than the kimono, or they wear both.
Many of Ohkata’s clientele are people who have found a kimono at home and want to give it new life. They care about the story behind the kimono, she added.
Her small store in downtown Tokyo displays various dolls, including a figure of an emperor paired with his wife, who are traditionally brought out for display in Japanese homes for the Girls’ Day festival every March 3. Her dolls, however, are exquisitely dressed in recycled kimonos, tailored in tiny sizes to fit the dolls. They sell for 245,000 yen ($1,600) a pair.
The art of putting on a kimono
The original old-style kimono is also getting rediscovered.
“Unlike the dress, you can arrange it,” says Nao Shimizu, who heads a school in Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto that teaches people how to wear a kimono and how to carry oneself while wearing it.
“In half a year, you can learn how to do it all by yourself,” she said, briskly demonstrating several ways to tie the obi to express different moods, from playful to understated.
Besides its durability, said Shimizu, that versatility also makes the kimono sustainable.
Younger Japanese are taking a more relaxed view, wearing a kimono with boots, for instance, she laughed. Traditionally, kimono is worn with sandals called “zori.”
Although it requires some skill to put on a kimono in the traditional way, one can take lessons from teachers like Shimizu, like learning a musical instrument. Professional help is also available at beauty parlors, hotels and some shops.
Most Japanese might wear a kimono just a few times in their lives. But wearing one is a memorable experience.
Sumie Kaneko, a singer who plays the traditional Japanese instruments koto and shamisen, often performs wearing flashy dresses made of recycled kimonos. The idea of sustainability is deeply rooted in Japanese culture, she says, noting that the ivory and animal hide used in her musical instruments are now hard to obtain.
She calls it “the recycling of life.”
“The performer breathes new life into them,” says the New York-based Kaneko.
“In the same way, a past moment — and those patterns and colors that were once loved — can come back to life.”
