LUXEMBOURG I

Looking back at the last month which I have spent so far in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg I recognized a cultural aspect in society that surprised me and did not expect. To be more clear about what I want to focus on in this essay, it is the unimportance of just speaking a single language. First of all, I want to say that I grew up in southern Germany which might impact my relation to multilingualism and my general point of view on this topic as it is quite common there to just speak one language in daily life. It is not at all necessary to switch to another language there in case you want to speak to the waiter in a restaurant or to a cashier in a grocery store as more or less everybody who lives there is capable of speaking German somehow  sufficiently. Looking at Luxembourg this is quite different. To obtain the Luxembourgish citizenship it is nevertheless necessary to speak Luxembourgish, which on a certain level, is quite similar to German, . However, in everyday life, the language which is mostly used if you go to a restaurant or a grocery store is French as many people of the Luxembourgish workforce are commuting between France and Luxembourg or become as a French-speaking person resident in Luxembourg. Therefore it can happen that you will go for buying some goods and start with the Luxembourgish greeting “moien” switch then to French and, as the person opposite realizes that you are usually speaking German, switches to German. All this just during one small conversation at the check-out without even knowing each other or speaking about language preferences. This internationality shows itself also regarding the constellation of the Luxembourgish population. In 2017 only about 52 % of the population were Luxembourgish citizens. The other 48% were mostly from other European countries, mostly from Portugal and France (Fondatioun Zentrum fir politesch Bildung 2018). Comparing this figure to other European countries, Germany for example, the share of inhabitants with foreign nationality is significantly lower. In Germany, it was just about nine percent in 2016 (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung 2018). Furthermore, the economy in Luxembourg is quite dependent on foreign workers as 185’000 regular cross-border commuters are working in the Grand Duchy and are adding to the 626’000 inhabitants of the country. This is certainly one reason for the diversity of nationalities in this small country (Grossherzogtum Luxemburg 2020) The figures shown reflect the picture of Luxembourg’s streets. It is quite common to get to know people from all over Europe not only at the university but also in the daily life if you go to stores and other companies. And it seems to me that the integration of all these different nationalities works quite well in this small country, as criminality here seems not very noticeable to me. Also, the integration of foreigners seems to work quite well as the country has still rather low criminality rates, and furthermore these figures decline. Another figure which makes the assumption of a good integration possible is that the ratio of jobless people was in 2019 at 5.5%. Compared to the European Union this figure is below the average (eurostat 2020). Concluding it can be said that the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is very interesting especially when it comes to topics like language or more generally internationality. Therefore I can recommend Luxembourg very much as a potential ERASMUS destination as you live the international spirit of ERASMUS and the European Union every day in this country and experience on the other side a very well economically developed country.

Daniel Vogler R

References: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. (2018). Ausländische Bevölkerung: In absoluten Zahlen, Anteile der Altersgruppen in Prozent, 1970 bis 2016. https://www.bpb.de/nachschlagen/zahlen-undfakten/soziale-situation-in-deutschland/61622/auslaendische-bevoelkerung eurostat. (2020, January 9). Arbeitslosenquote im Euroraum bei 7,5%: In der EU28 bei 6,3% [Press release]. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/10159288/3-09012020-APDE.pdf/0e80297a-3585-922f-e35a-da8f215416db Fondatioun Zentrum fir politesch Bildung (2018). Ween ass Lëtzebuerg? Duerchbléck! - Politik Verstoen(3). https://zpb.lu/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/duerchbleck-3-Ween-ass-Letzebuerg.pdf Grossherzogtum Luxemburg. (2020, October 14). Eine kleine, aber offene Bevölkerung: Erfahren Sie mehr über die Zusammensetzung der luxemburgischen Bevölkerung. https://luxembourg.public.lu/de/gesellschaft-und-kultur/bevolkerung/demografie.html