Throughout its history, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has stood out for its flexibility, its welcoming and living together culture, and multilingualism. This particularity is explained by its geographical position, small area and its need for a foreign workforce.
Therefore, French and German, the languages of its neighbours, are historically administrative languages of the country. This choice was considered a great advantage when choosing Luxembourg as the seat of certain European institutions, such as the European Court of Auditors, the European Court of Justice, or the Publications Office of the European Union, which have helped the development of the country. Luxembourgish was established as the country’s national language by the Law of 24 February 1984 on language policy. However, although Luxembourgish has an official standardized spelling, Luxembourg has not sought to impose it either at European or at national level. As a result, its written use has remained very limited over the years.
Half of the population of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg nowadays consists of foreign residents, representing more than 170 different nationalities with diverse economic, social and cultural backgrounds. Added to this there are cca. 200,000 cross-border workers.
Unlike other multilingual countries, such as Switzerland, Belgium or Canada, where languages are distributed geographically, Luxembourg’s multilingualism is purely functional and contextual. This means that the choice of a language depends on the situation. Consequently, any newcomer is confronted with a multidimensional multilingualism that complicates their integration.
Given this demographic, economic, social, cultural and linguistic reality, the integration process involves a collective effort, not only on the part of newcomers, but also of the native population, and has several dimensions:
- The economic dimension,
- The cultural and educational dimension,
- The political and civic dimension,
- The social dimension.
The CSV is the first political party in October 2008 to have created a sub-organization, CSV International (CSI), dedicated to the inclusion of foreign members who speak little or no Luxembourgish. CSI became an official platform of the party during the presidency of François Biltgen with the aim of welcoming non-Luxembourgish people, therefore reflecting the importance of including all residents in the working life of the country.
It is important to note that CSV is the only party with an active international section that uses languages other than Luxembourgish. The CSI regularly organizes conferences, debates, visits to the Chamber of Deputies, etc. in French, English, Portuguese, Spanish or Romanian, allowing residents who do not speak Luxembourgish to get involved actively in the socio-cultural and political life of Luxembourg. At the same time, since 2019, CSI has been organizing events in collaboration with the local sections to allow for better inclusion and true sharing between all members.
Given the demographic particularity of Luxembourg and the importance of consolidating its image as a positive reference in terms of living together, the CSV Integration working group, created in September 2020, in consultation with CSI, proposes the following actions:
1) Economy
The Luxembourg economy is largely dependent on foreign, both resident and cross-border, workforce. The importance of this workforce was highlighted during the current pandemic, when the closure of borders would have seriously endangered the proper functioning of vital services in Luxembourg.
- Support companies in their effort to recruit people from third countries who are already residing in Luxembourg, in particular by setting up a special limited-duration visa for foreign self-employed persons, who are highly qualified, either as a result of their qualifications or experience, for the purpose of creating a business or to undertake any mission of more than 3 months with a start-up, SME or large company.
- Review the procedure for recognition of diplomas in the light of EU legislation so as to allow people already present in Luxembourg to integrate more quickly into the labour market, including new Luxembourgers who have completed their education abroad.
- Facilitate the integration into the labour market of:
- accompanying spouses, who are third-country nationals, without a work permit but with skills demanded on the labour market,
- professionals in specific fields of activity who have the required skills and qualifications but do not have the language skills in one or more official languages of the country, thus enabling them to serve certain linguistic communities,
- Master’s and Doctoral students from the University of Luxembourg after their post-graduate studies, thereby benefiting from a return on investment in their education and, in particular, from the skills developed during the 3-6 years spent in Luxembourg.
2) Culture and education
- Promote and enhance multilingualism while at the same time find flexible and adapted solutions to support the use and promotion of Luxembourgish in the public space;
- Use new technologies, via online services by QR code e.g. with a view to promoting a multilingual welcome;
- Develop and provide Luxembourgish language courses entirely online via applications such as Zoom or Teams to facilitate learning Luxembourgish from your workplace or from home;
- Currently, Luxembourgish is hardly displayed in public spaces. Someone passing through Luxembourg for a weekend will not even know that there is a Luxembourgish language. The symbolic visibility of Luxembourgish in public places is a key element, and writing the names of places in Luxembourgish – streets, avenues, towns, villages – would be a step in the right direction, as some municipalities are already doing;
- Ensure the systematic use of Luxembourgish in early education classes;
- Encourage Luxembourgers to use Luxembourgish, both orally and in writing, in order to create learning opportunities for people wishing to practice it;
- Support and promote more exchange and alternative learning platforms, such as the “Sproochecafé”, which is currently held on a monthly basis and is deemed insufficient.
3) Civic and political participation
- Promote simultaneous translation in French and/or English, during events held in Luxembourgish such as information meetings, municipal council meetings and parliamentary sessions open to the public to encourage residents who speak little or no Luxembourgish to attend;
- Expand the availability of political information in several languages, both orally and in writing (political debates could benefit from translations into one or more languages used in the country);
- Strongly encourage the local sections to promote the candidacy of new Luxembourg citizens or residents on their electoral lists for municipal or national elections.
4) Social dimension
- Further develop a culture of hospitality;
- Given that the municipality is the first point of contact for a newcomer, it is key that this first experience is worthwhile for a proper welcome and future participation in the life of the municipality, hence the importance of better supporting the notion of living together in the new municipal law;
- Replace the welcome and integration contract with an obligatory civic contract for all, which should be managed at municipal rather than national level; in order to better promote living together and allow more contact between residents, this contract could focus on different aspects, which would allow better opportunities for sharing between:
- those who have just arrived in the country,
- those who are new Luxembourgers who have acquired the nationality abroad (who are not currently considered for the integration contract) and
- the Indigenous population.
- According to the municipal law currently in force, an integration committee is required in all municipalities. Unfortunately, the implementation respectively the proper functioning are not always guaranteed. Therefore, it might be necessary to introduce some kind of reporting, e.g., a requirement to provide an annual report to the ministry, which would ensure its proper functioning. In this context, it should be noted that some municipalities have an informal “responsible for integration” who is required to provide new arrivals with information on the functioning of public services, on the courses offered to children and adults in languages, music, sports or civic and political training . We propose to professionalize this function.
- A welcome “Kit” – in digital and paper formats – could include the syllabus of the course “Vivre Ensemble au Luxembourg” and therefore bring together information on the country’s institutions, the school system, an introduction to Luxembourgish, the volunteering possibilities or even the habits and customs of the country. Many newcomers want to get involved in community projects that would allow them to make friends and therefore support inclusion and participation in municipal life. However, this kind of information is generally lacking, or it is difficult to learn about volunteering opportunities and who to contact. At the same time, associations lack volunteers. The municipal newsletter distributed to all households is the communication channel where associations could post their announcements. The integration committee would be the “go to” contact for further information;
- Include in the municipal newsletter interviews with non-Luxembourgish residents about their experience and life in Luxembourg from a socio-cultural and political perspective;
- Propose at municipal level a voluntary “buddy” service for new arrivals by Luxembourgers or those who have lived in Luxembourg for many years. These could offer their services by registering on a list to be invited or welcome someone at home for lunch or dinner once a month/quarter/year to allow a first informal contact with locals and create opportunities for exchange and sharing, in particular with regards to the habits and customs of the country or answering other questions that newcomers may have; we know that the sharing of a good meal brings people together;
- Propose integration and inclusion events regularly for newcomers at the municipal level. Some municipalities organize this type of event once a year, which is insufficient to facilitate contact between residents and to enable them to build relationships. These events could be coordinated by associations and volunteers and financially supported by the municipalities; (see next point)
- Grant subsidies to local associations and clubs for their projects and activities aimed at the inclusion and integration of newcomers in each municipality. These need not be linked to the nationality of the persons. For example, the elderly find themselves more and more isolated due to the increased digitization of the supply of services of all kinds.
Resolution presented by Daniela Clara Moraru at CSV International’s National Congress on 01/02/2023 and voted unanimously.