DETAILS RECOMMANDATIONS ASTI - MIPEX 2020
DomainLabour marketmobility

MIPEX Recommendations
Text laws - procedures
MIPEX: Labour market mobility: Slightly unfavourable:
Non-European newcomers have less access andsupport to improve their job prospects, professional
and language skills in Luxembourg than in most EU or
Western European countries.

How can non-EU nationals obtain a residence permit
for an employed person?
o A residence permit for an employed person must be
applied for before arriving in Luxembourg.
o The third-country national is looking for anemployer in Luxembourg before coming.
o Employers are obliged by law to declare any vacancy
to ADEM before they can hire.
o The ADEM checks on the national or European
labour market to see if there are any suitable
candidates available for the vacancy.
o If none of the candidates put forward by ADEM aresuitable for the employer, the employer can request

Findings/Claims of the ASTI I
ASTI: the demands of 2015 are still valid
The fact is that Non-EU nationals must prove for a job
applied for in Luxembourg that the employment is "ofgeneral interest" for our market.
This general interest criterion should be abolished or atleast better defined .
Another obstacle to obtain a residence permit for Non-EU
employees is the complexity of the recruitment procedure
related to the requirements of the Ministry of Immigrationand the market test to which they are subject.
We would like to see the following demands added- Introduction of a temporary residence permit for thepurpose of seeking work; Luxembourg should be inspiredby the recent example of Germany, which amended its
legislation to allow skilled workers (persons with a higher
education diploma or a qualified vocational training of atleast two years) to obtain a temporary residence permit toenable them to seek work.
1

after 3 weeks a certificate from ADEM attesting to thepossibility of hiring a person from outside the EU of
his or her own choice.
o The employer issues an employment contract
without a starting date in favour of the non-EU
worker applying for a residence permit.
o The ADEM certificate attesting to the possibility ofemploying a person from outside the EU is attachedto the application for a residence permit for non-EU
employees which the applicant worker must submit
to the Immigration Department of the Ministry ofForeign Affairs.
o The deadline for processing the application isapproximately 4 months.
o The Ministry may reply that an "administrative
investigation" of an undefined duration is underway
in order to process the file and verify the authenticityof the documents submitted.
o The third-country national will only be able to takeup employment after receiving his or her residence
permit for an employed person.
o This residence permit for employed persons gives
them the right to settle in Luxembourg.

- Offering the possibility for people legally residing for along period in another EU Member State to obtain aresidence and work permit in Luxembourg, without having
to pass the market test.

2

Familyreunification of
third country
nationals TCN

Luxembourg has introduced in its legislation (Article67-4 added by the law of 1 August 2018 to theimmigration law) a temporary residence permit forseeking work or setting up a business. This provisionapplies to persons already present on Luxembourgterritory.
Students or researchers may, at the end of theirstudies or research, be authorised to stay for a periodof 9 months to look for work or to set up a business.
Thereafter they can apply for an AS as an employee or
as a self-employed person.
MIPEX Family reunification: Halfway favourable:
Luxembourg has become slightly favourable to nonEuropean families, by abolishing the one-year waiting
period, in line with EU trends. However, obstacles tointegration still appear in the procedures, security andrights in the area of family reunification.

This is a transposition of Article 25 of the European
Directive of 11 May 2016 on the conditions of entry andresidence of third-country nationals for the purposes ofresearch, studies, training, voluntary service and pupil
exchange programmes or educational projects and au pairwork.

An TCN must prove to have appropriate
accommodation as defined by the Grand-Ducal
Regulation of 5 September 2008 defining the criteria ofresources and housing provided by the law of 29
August 2008 on the free movement of persons andimmigration.

ASTI maintains the recommendation of the housing
criterion.
The housing criteria required for family reunification need
to be better defined.
It is difficult to know what precise criteria are required of a
TCN who wants to be joined by his or her family.

ASTI: the clause of 12 months of residence and work has
been abolished for TCN reunification of spouses andchildren - this clause is still valid for the reunification ofascendants.
The maximum waiting time for an answer is currently 9months

3

Education

Art 9. (1) The condition of appropriate accommodation
provided for by law is assessed in relation to thestipulations of the Grand-Ducal Regulation of 25th
February determining the criteria of tenancy, health orhygiene which the accommodation intended for rent
must meet.
For the application of Article 69, paragraph (1), point
2 of the law, is considered as appropriate housing, thehousing considered as normal for a family ofcomparable size in the same locality and meeting thecriteria referred to in the preceding paragraph, etc.,
shall be considered as appropriate housing.
MIPEX Education: Slightly favourable: Slightly above
the Western European average, Luxembourg offers
courses targeted at the specific needs of immigrant
pupils and advocates an intercultural approach for allpupils. However, with the largest number of 1st/2nd
generation pupils of any developed democracy,
Luxembourg has a particularly important task inpromoting equal opportunities at all levels,
encouraging mixed schools, language learning,
multilingualism and diversity in the education sector.

The number of rooms required according to the family
composition, the size of the accommodation required, ...

For ASTI all the recommendations of 2015 remain valid.
The major challenge at school is the high level ofknowledge required in German and French, as well as thehesitant approach to learning German as a foreign language
for children born to foreign parents, who have moredifficulty associating their mother tongue with German.
One of the consequences is the high number of young
people who leave school without a diploma or certification
at the end of the school curriculum.
In the meantime, many jobs are filled by cross-bordercommuters, mostly monolingual but qualified.
4

From the age of 12 onwards, young people are separated
between classical secondary school with few foreign pupils
and technical secondary school where the majority ofpupils are of foreign origin: the separation therefore takes
place at an early age and becomes "effective".
We would like to add that formal and informal education
are struggling to work together for equal opportunities.
HealthAccess to social
security
coverage

MIPEX Health: Half-Favourable: While immigrantpatients have rights to inclusive health care andintercultural interpreters, Luxembourg's averagepolicies could benefit from greater involvement ofimmigrants in the design and delivery of services andgreater integration in all health policies.

Politicalparticipation

Political participation: Favourable: With foreign citizens

constituting a near-majority of its population,
Luxembourg does more than most countries tofacilitate their political participation through local

ASTI supports the demand by several Luxembourg civilsociety organisations (Ronnen Desch) for the creation of anuniversal health coverage. This would pursue threeinterrelated objectives of universal coverage:- Equitable access to health services - all those who needhealth services, whatever their financial means, should beable to access them ;- quality - health services must be of sufficient quality toimprove the health of those who receive them;- financial protection - the cost of care must not expose
users to financial hardship
There is a need to promote access to all types ofparticipation in a country where 48% of residents areforeigners - voting in legislative elections, according to thecriterion of residence, should be possible for all migrants in5

voting rights, ad hoc campaigns, strong consultative
bodies and funding for immigrant associations. Thesepolicies are ranked #2 on MIPEX, alongside Ireland andNew Zealand, and score 85/100. Luxembourg’s policies
would be fully favourable with small changes in thevoter registration procedure. Turnout among foreign
citizens could be as high as in Nordic countries if voter
registration was quasi-automatic and ongoing, from a
newcomer’s first day in Luxembourg up until a few
days before the election. These changes can becompatible with EU law and Luxembourg’s obligatory
voting system.

Luxembourg in order to allow real democratic participationof all residents.
Given that 83% of resident foreigners are citizens of theUnion, who are less interested in acquiring Luxembourg
nationality, access to the national right to vote on the basisof residence could be a possibility to include them in civicparticipation.
The referendum on the legislative right to vote on 7 June2015 clearly rejected this idea. Luxembourg voters havemade it clear that participation in national elections will
only be possible through access to Luxembourg nationality.
In order to overcome this blockage, ASTI recommends thecreation of instruments for citizen participation with local(communes) and national (Chamber of Deputies) bodies,e.g. the Luxembourg Parliament. The introduction of a
"Bürgerrat" on the model of the German-speaking cantonof Belgium, the reform of the National Council forForeigners elected by foreigners and attached as aconsultative body to the Chamber of Deputies is anotheravenue.

6Permanent
residenceLong-term stay

Access tonationality

MIPEX : Permanent residence : Half favourable: The
path to permanent residence in Luxembourg isaverage for Western Europe but more complicatedthan in countries such as Belgium, Italy, Portugal,
Spain and the Nordic countries. The way in whichLuxembourg transposed its European obligations in2008 allowed a smaller number of groups to benefit
from greater rights but still limited security.
MIPEX Access to nationality: Slightly favourable:
Immigrants access to nationality has improved fromhalf to slightly favourable, which may begin toincrease the traditionally low rates of naturalisationand political participation in Luxembourg. While the2008 reform paved the way for dual nationality, thenationality law of 8 March 2017 followed therecommendations of MIPEX and international trends.
The waiting period for the first generation is reducedfrom 7 to 5 years and their efforts are rewarded forlearning Luxembourgish. The right to citizenship isrecovered by spouses and extended from the third to
the second generation. Luxembourg's policies are now
comparable to those of many Western European
countries and are now restrictive on only a few points
compared to traditional destination countries (theAll the 2015 recommendations remain valid
A TCN must prove 5 years of residence and work in
Luxembourg before applying for long-term residence. If heor she has an interruption of work during these 5 years, thelong-term residence permit may be refused (withexceptions such as illness or pregnancy...).
The waiting period of 6 months to receive an answer fromthe Immigration Department is too long.
The law having been reformed in 2017 allows wider accessto Luxembourg nationality by introducing, among otherthings, jus soli for the second generation. Nevertheless,Luxembourg is struggling to enshrine the pure and simple
jus solis.
ASTI underlines that it is incomprehensible that the timerequired to accede to nationality and to register on thecommunal electoral rolls is the same.

7Antidiscrimination

Americas, Australia, New Zealand), Ireland, Portugal
or Sweden.
MIPEX Anti-discrimination: Favourable: The biggest
improvement in Luxembourg's integration policies has
been its stronger approach to non-discrimination
thanks to the law of 7 November 2017. Luxembourg's
anti-discrimination policies have moved from slightly
to fully favourable, as protection now extends to all
victims of discrimination on the basis of nationality,
whether they are Luxembourg citizens, mobile
Europeans or non-EU citizens. These improvements inLuxembourg's laws and enforcement mechanisms
could help to improve the traditionally low levels ofawareness of discrimination and reporting of cases ofdiscrimination on the grounds of nationality, race,ethnic origin and religion. Its policies are now
comparable to those of Western European countries
and traditional destination countries, althoughpractitioners could still learn from their wider
experiences, practices and positive actions.

The Equal Treatment Centre CET should have the possibility
to take legal action in cases of discrimination.
Its resources should be strengthened in order to improve
the work against all forms of discrimination.
We demand that Luxembourg should also set up a
monitoring body, e.g. an observatory on racism,
antisemitism and xenophobia.

8