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People tend to relocate to Luxembourg for a job and when they are younger, according to a report out this week from Luxembourg’s statistics agency. Photo by Cedric Letsch on Unsplash 

The French were the largest segment of migrants last year, but Indians and Brazilians also figured in the top 10 nationalities, according to Statec, the national statistics bureau.

Luxembourg’s net migration rate was 16.3 arrivals per 1,000 inhabitants in 2018, compared to 4.3 in Belgium, -0.8 in France, 4.8 in Germany and 2.6 across the EU27.

Historically the largest group of migrants were Italians, between the end of the second world war and the 1960s, and then Portuguese from the 1960s to 2014. Since then, the biggest bloc of immigrants have been French.

In 2019, the French made up 14.8% of migrants to Luxembourg, followed by Italians (9.2%) and Portuguese (8.9%).

The Statec report said, however, that many migrants come from outside the EU:

“Among the net migration observed last year, Indians were the largest non-European nationality with net migration of 531 people (4.8% of net migration). Two other non-European nationalities were also present in the top 10 nationalities: Eritreans (3.4% of net migration, or 375 net migrants), for the most part asylum seekers, and Brazilians (2.8% of net migrants, or 313 net migrants).”

The nationalities in the top 10 were Romanians, Belgians, Spaniards and Greeks.

“The principal factor for immigrating to the grand duchy is work,” Statec stated.

Migrants to Luxembourg are young. The vast majority (72.2%) are aged 18 to 50. From the Statec report:

“On average, during the 2010-2019 period, we noted a strong concentration in the 20 to 36 year old age group. The relatively high net migration of younger people indicates that migration, in addition to professional reasons, is also driven by family migration. Around the age of 50, migratory surpluses change to close to zero and are even slightly negative.”

Unsurprisingly migrants are more concentrated in and around Luxembourg City and Esch-Alzette, although there is likewise a heavy concentration living in Berdorf commune, on the German border, which has a notable refugee shelter.

There was net emigration of 1,067 Luxembourgers in 2019; 8 in 10 of them moved to a neighbouring country.

Statec released the report, “Luxembourg, land of immigration”, on 20 May.

There were 626,000 people living in Luxembourg, as of 1 January 2020, of whom 47.4% are foreign nationals, per Statec.