Up to 55 nationalities are listed in the local statistics for the resident population of Sölden. Unlike other parts of the Tyrol, however, it is almost exclusively seasonal labour that accounts for incoming migrants from other countries. Citizens of Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, the UK and the successor states to Yugoslavia form the biggest groups of people who come here to work in the tourist trade. As waiters or waitresses and ski instructors, at the cable car stations and in the hotel kitchens and receptions, they keep things running smoothly – and comprise one third of the local population during the high season. They do not leave until the last visitors have packed their suitcases.

In a Europe that is growing closer and closer together, and in a region that is dependent on outside labour, their image is quite different from that of migrants who come to remain in the country. For the – limited – period of their stay, they are most welcome in the inner Ötz Valley.