Forty years after Siamo italiani, Alexander Seiler devotes himself again to several of the “foreign workers” who had flocked to Switzerland from southern Italy. The young couple of once-upon-a-time have retired and are now back in their homeland in Apulia enjoying the fruits of their working days abroad – and also yearning for a visit from their children who live in Switzerland. It is not only the second generation Italians in Switzerland who feel as if they are “half-Swiss, half-Italian”: Some of the former migrants, though they have returned to Apulia, find themselves most often “in Switzerland” in their thoughts. “I am constantly missing something”, says the 40-year old Anna. “Distance and desire tear at the heart” – is how the 65-year-old Tonuccio sums up the life of the migrants.