The consequence of not having a theme for this monthly writing challenge is that I mostly pick up random, current topics and run with them. Like the anonymous mom in an expat working mothers’ Facebook group who posted:
“Can I ask if anyone knows if Spreitenbach is a bad place to move with teenage-aged children?”
The answers, all posted by other anonymous group members, were all like:
“Yes, it’s called the ghetto of Switzerland.”
“It’s the worst place in the whole country to be.”
Wow, the nerve.
Until the mid-1950s, Spreitenbach was a small farming village with just under 1,000 inhabitants, 6,000 fruit trees, and a few local businesses. A massive construction boom followed, driven in part by Zurich’s former ban on unmarried couples living together, which pushed many young couples to move across the cantonal border to Aargau. Spreitenbach was planned almost from scratch as a satellite city, with high-rise housing, industrial zones, Switzerland’s first American-style shopping mall, and Switzerland’s first IKEA (the first branch outside Scandinavia). Although grand growth projections were later scaled back after the 1970s oil crisis, the town’s population has still grown more than sixfold since 1960, making it one of Aargau’s fastest-growing municipalities.
In 2008, the municipality of Spreitenbach was awarded the “energy city” label. In 2012, the Umwelt Arena, an exhibition and event venue for environmental technology, was opened.
Spreitenbach’s old village part, complete with farmers’ houses, an honesty-system farmers’ shop, and traditional stone village fountains (the kind you can actually drink from), still exists. I’ll say it definitely qualifies as a postcard village.
Spreitenbach is also an important business location due to its excellent transport links in the west of the Zurich metropolitan area. Numerous well-known companies have settled here. The best known are Zweifel (potato chips), Bridgestone (car tires), Soprema (waterproofing and insulation materials), Nestlé (food), Miele (household appliances), Chiquita (banana producer), and Coop.ch (online retail). In total, Spreitenbach has roughly 550 businesses with approximately 8,800 jobs, mainly in the service sector.
Spreitenbach is not a ghetto. It’s a normal Swiss municipality with functioning schools, youth work, public transport, shops, taxes, local government, street cleaning, the whole lot. The term ghetto implies lawlessness, segregation without infrastructure, and state neglect, none of which apply in Switzerland.
I took the time to explore the neighborhoods that you usually miss when you only go to the mall. Take a look at this lovely property!
If the concern is safety or youth behavior, it’s worth looking at how everyday life actually plays out. I found this encouraging note in the minutes of a recent town meeting:
“It is also worth mentioning that Halloween in Spreitenbach passed peacefully. This is not a matter of course. In many places, young people use this evening as an opportunity to cause mischief, including damaging property such as blowing up mailboxes, throwing eggs at house walls, or throwing stones through windows.”
That may sound like a small detail, but it says something important about community life here: even when outsiders expect trouble, the reality tends to be orderly and respectful.
What people mean when they say “ghetto” is really: high proportion of immigrants, higher density, and a place that looks less “idyllic”.
People, especially privileged expats living in Switzerland, tend to label places as “problematic” very quickly once:
many residents have foreign roots (especially Balkans, Turkey, etc.)
housing is denser and cheaper
there are fewer detached, white-picket-fence-style single-family homes and fewer SUVs in driveways
None of that automatically equals unsafe or bad for teenagers.
Switzerland doesn’t publish easy, comparable crime numbers at the municipal level, but at the cantonal level Spreitenbach’s region (Aargau) has a crime rate very close to the national average, and lower than some major urban cantons like Zurich. That doesn’t fit the idea of a place defined by disorder.
What’s really happening there is hierarchy within “foreigners”:
Expats = mobile, educated, English-speaking, economically privileged → “international”
Immigrants (Balkans, Turkey, etc.) = working class, visible, rooted → suddenly “ghetto”
Same passport status (non-Swiss), radically different social judgment. That’s not about safety or kids’ wellbeing. It’s about class and cultural capital, dressed up as concern.
Let’s have a look at some numbers:
As of the end of 2024, Spreitenbach has about 12,572 residents. Of those, 6,045 are Swiss citizens and 6,527 (≈52%) are foreign nationals. That foreigner share is well above the Swiss average of ~27% nationally, but not unique; several other Swiss municipalities also have high foreigner percentages. To be fair, among the “48% Swiss citizens,” naturalization rates are high since some are long-settled migrant communities (Italy, former Yugoslavia, Turkey, Portugal).
People from 86 different nations live in the municipality.
So back to the “ghetto” claim. Yes, near the industrial zone by the freeway, there is a designated transit site for itinerant communities, made up of small, colorful modular structures. It’s tidy, well maintained, and clearly regulated, very Swiss in its own way.
What Spreitenbach shows is that difference is often mistaken for disorder. A high foreign population, denser housing, or a transit site does not make a place unsafe, it just makes some people uncomfortable. The “ghetto” label tells us more about the person using it than about the town itself.
What do you think: are labels like “ghetto” ever fair — or are they always just a shortcut for prejudice?
Spreitenbach sounds like any city and what most people experience. I am sure the parent was looking for comments more along with the information you provided in this post rather than a yes it is a ghetto.
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