Migration History
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg can look back on a long migratory history since the Middle Ages. Hospices attached to monasteries for pilgrims and the strategic location of Luxembourg’s fortress furthered migration.
In the second half of the 19th century, Luxembourg experienced a large-scale labour immigration of both low and highly skilled workers (mainly Germans). This development can be attributed to Luxembourg’s flourishing steel industry, which in turn coincided with Luxembourg’s joining of the German Customs Union in 1842, the installation of the railway in 1859, as well as the political consolidation and demilitarization following the Treaty of London signed in 1867, which allowed Luxembourg to remain a neutral country. Together these events facilitated cross-border trade and the transport of goods and people. The lack of workforce in the local population, drove qualified workers, such as engineers, from Germany and manual workers from Italy to Luxembourg. The latter, however, rotated in between the neighbouring regions of Lorraine, Luxembourg, and Saarland in search for the best working conditions and highest salaries.
German immigration stopped at the end of World War II, but additional workers were needed for the construction and agricultural sectors. Migration to Luxembourg continued on the basis of bilateral agreements. First, the Luxembourgish government tried to initiate migration from Italy, which was rejected by the Italian government at first. Eventually, a bilateral agreement was concluded in 1948 between Luxembourg and Italy, which was renewed until the creation of the European Economic Community in 1957. Luxembourg also entered into a bilateral labour agreement in 1950 with the Netherlands to recruit agricultural workers. With the entering into force of the Treaty of Rome on 1st January 1958, citizens of the six signatory countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) started to benefit from the free circulation of workers. Since the Mid-1960s, Portuguese migrants who had been working in the French neighbouring province of Lorraine came to work in Luxembourg mainly in the construction and cleaning sector or as domestic workers. In 1970, a bilateral agreement was signed between Portugal and Luxembourg. Luxembourg continued to sign several bilateral agreements on work migration from third countries from outside the EEC (which was later to become the EU), which were however quite restrictive. In 1970, for instance, a bilateral agreement was signed with the former Republic of Yugoslavia, which excluded family reunification to prevent immigration from a “non- catholic” country. For the same reason, bilateral labour agreements with Asian or North African countries were not envisaged.
The development of Luxembourg to a service- and financial centre in the 1980s attracted work migrants from Germany and other European countries. Although the largest share of foreign residents in Luxembourg are EU-citizens, the diversification of migration to Luxembourg has increased over time to include increasing numbers of citizens from third countries. The Cape Verdean community arrived in the wake of Portuguese immigration and has ever since constituted the main community from sub-Saharan Africa. The wars on the territory of the former Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s and early 2000s led to refugee movements also to Luxembourg, where an Yugoslav immigrant community was already established. In recent years, many descendants of Luxembourgers who emigrated to Brazil about 100 years ago to build up the steel industry on the other side of the Atlantic are retracing their ancestral roots and immigrate to Luxembourg. Due to the Naturalization law of 2017 which allows the recovery of nationality for immigrants with Luxembourgish ancestors the share of naturalisation of the descendants is quite significant. The diversification of migration is ongoing. On the one hand it is furthered by the needs of the labour market of the Grand Duchy, which is focussed in the financial and services sectors, with the gradual installation of migrants from the US, China and India and on the other hand by the significant arrival of refugees from Syria, Iraq and Eritrea since 2015 and, from February 2022 onwards, Ukrainians fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Recent Migration Structure
Luxembourg’s demographic profile is characterised by a high share of foreign residents. On 1 January 2023, Luxembourg had 660,809 inhabitants, out of which 47,4 percent were foreign nationals. The percentage of foreigners has been increasing constantly over the last years.
The vast majority of foreigners in Luxembourg are EU citizens (78,4 percent). Although the share of third-country nationals is increasing (also due to refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine), the Top 5 foreign nationalities in Luxembourg are EU nationalities with a long migration history to Luxembourg: Portuguese, French, Italian, Belgian, and German. The majority (51,5 percent) of the foreigners are male. Foreign nationals make up more than 50 percent of the main work force (25 to 54 years).
While foreigners reside in all communes in Luxembourg, their geographic distribution is uneven: the proportion of foreign population is highest in the capital Luxembourg City (70.8 percent) and lowest in the rural municipality of Wahl (20.4 percent).
In addition to the significance of Luxembourg’s neighbouring countries, which are already under the Top 5 source countries of foreign nationals, cross-border commuting to Luxembourg from Germany, France, and Belgium (i.e. the Greater Region) plays an extraordinary role. In 2021, 207.530 cross-border workers commuted every weekday to Luxembourg. This represents 47 percent of the overall workforce in Luxembourg and diversifies the population structure during working days even further.
Insights into Luxembourg’s Migration, Integration and Asylum Policies
Luxembourgish legislation on immigration and asylum is shaped by transposed European Directives and also reflects the changing significance of immigration to Luxembourg and its socio-economic impacts. Over time, legislation has become more nuanced and detailed to accommodate the increasing migratory flows to Luxembourg as well as the progressively more diverse profiles of migrants.
The first comprehensive asylum law was introduced in 2006. With the recast of the Directive n° 2013/32/EU, Luxembourg approved the Law on international protection and temporary protection. The revision of the Luxembourgish Constitution in 2023, recognised at Constitutional level the right of asylum, completing the national legal framework on asylum (1951 Geneva Convention, EU acquis, etc.). The new constitutional text entered into force on 1 July 2023.
In Luxembourg the first integration policies were developed in 1993. However, there was not a clear definition of what “integration” meant. The integration of foreign residents follows a mainstreaming approach, and it is managed by different actors at the local and central levels. The integration policy has been developed since the introduction of the Law on the reception and integration of foreigners in 2008, which defined the term “integration” for the first time. This law understands integration as a two-way process involving society as a whole: foreign and national residents alike. Luxembourg’s current integration strategy is set out in the multiannual National Action Plans for Integration (PAN Integration) and it is implemented through two main programmes: the Welcome and Integration Contract (CAI), and the Accompanied Integration Pathway (PIA).
The Luxembourgish Integration Law has been undergoing a comprehensive reform process since 2020. The Ministry of Family Affairs, Integration and the Greater Region consulted a wide range of stakeholders and commissioned the OECD to conduct a study on Luxembourg's integration policies. The new bill aims, inter alia, to replace the current "integration" approach with an approach based on the concept of “intercultural living together”, which is broader as it aims for example at establishing “diversity as a wealth and advantage for the development of an intercultural society”.
Other laws and policies that reflect a more gradual shift regarding how the country perceives immigration are the changes in the nationality law and the electoral law. For instance, in 2008, Luxembourg allowed dual citizenship and in 2017, the requirements for obtaining Luxembourgish citizenship were simplified allowing for naturalisation by option. In 2022, the electoral law was modified to make voting in communal elections more accessible to foreign residents. All foreign citizens legally residing in Luxembourg may now participate in municipal elections, regardless of their nationality and length of residence. The government’s “ultimate goal remains to include our non-Luxembourg citizens in the democratic process” as the right to vote is seen as an essential factor of integration.