The ministry of Family, Integration and the Greater Region discussed the findings of the OECD study on the structures set in place to allow for good integration of immigrants in Luxembourg.  Photo: Gouvernement.lu 

The ministry of Family, Integration and the Greater Region discussed the findings of the OECD study on the structures set in place to allow for good integration of immigrants in Luxembourg.  Photo: Gouvernement.lu 

There are a flurry of integration initiatives in Luxembourg but immigrants struggle with languages and access to housing, a study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said in a study.

The OECD in collaboration with the family ministry last week published a study taking a closer look at the integration of legal immigrants in Luxembourg. While the body acknowledged the variety of initiatives by the ministry, it remarked that there was a lack of follow-up with “graduates” of the various integration programmes, and that the few studies that existed focused too much on nationality, rather than on the immigration status of people.

One of the elements discussed at length were integration programmes. Introduced as part of a 2008 law, the Integration contract (CAI) is a non-mandatory contract open to all immigrants, offering civic and language courses, as well as assistance. The other programme—the Accompanied Integration Course (PIA)—is supposed to offer assistance to newcomers in the three parts of their integration.  

The 2008 law also includes housing and administrative support and combatting discrimination immigrants might face.

Theoretical plans that don’t match reality

But the CAI provides only 240 hours of language classes, below the number of hours needed to achieve a proficiency, the OECD said. The language studied might not be useful to the individual’s professional setting with the OECD also pointing out a shortage of participants among the most vulnerable groups.

The PIA, in turn, is barely even set in place, the OECD said in its report.

Housing constituted another issue. While EU citizens would resort to cross-border working in order to work in Luxembourg where housing is unaffordable, asylum seekers and non-EU residents, due to their status, cannot avoid the steep accommodation rates of the grand duchy.

A vicious cycle

As with the housing situation, it is hard for political immigrants to find work in Luxembourg. Only 35% of Eritreans and Syrians in Luxembourg were able to find a job.

Languages seemed to be one of the major hindrances to a successful and indiscriminatory integration of immigrants: not only do work agencies such as Adem only collaborate with those with at least a B1 level in French, children struggle to integrate the school system in Luxembourg, where the main language of education switches from Luxembourgish to German to French over the course of 15 years, which explains that 55% of drop-outs are immigrants and non-natives.

The OECD also pointed out that though 60% of cross-border workers had worked in Luxembourg for over 10 years, very little was done to integrate them.

Better collaboration and in-depth follow-ups recommended

Though the OECD recommended many smaller changes, it listed the following main points:

- A better language learning strategy;

- Purposefully targeting more vulnerable immigrants and cross-border workers in the CAI and PIA programmes;

- A better collaboration between ministries, as immigration and integration touch more than just the ministry attributed to the task;

- A stronger involvement on the smaller, communal scale;

- Better educational accompaniment of immigrant children;

- Anti-discrimination training.

The organisation strongly suggested a more thorough evaluation and sharing of integration data and also said better data and correct statistics would shed light on the parts of the integration strategy and legislation that need to be addressed.

The study was published as a part of the requirements set by the 2008 law, which stipulated that a study of this kind must be conducted every five years.