In some ways, the tiny country of Luxembourg looks like a land from a fairytale. Many of its government policies, especially regarding multiculturalism, also sound idyllic. Officially, the country is trilingual. But after living in the country for a year, I realized that the lived reality is a bit more nuanced.
I’m originally from the United States, and in 2021, I moved to Luxembourg to complete a master’s degree in multilingualism. Friends and family back home often asked me, “So, what language do they speak there?”
Luxembourg’s official languages are French, German, and Luxembourgish. The latter became a separate language in 1984 after being considered a dialect for many years. Luxembourgish is most similar to German and Dutch and uses many French words. According to the language law that the government passed in 1984, residents can contact public authorities and businesses in any of the three official languages.
That level of official multilingualism may appear challenging to people from countries with only one official language. However, Luxembourg promotes fluency through its multilingual school system. That allows kids to begin learning many languages as soon as they are old enough to enter school.
Primary school is mainly in German. In secondary school, instruction switches to French. That’s usually not a problem because primary school students learn French as a second language. Students also learn other languages, such as English, in school.
Luxembourg’s linguistic reality
Lena Lorché, a Luxembourgish citizen educated in the multilingual school system, says the teaching method works well if you already speak Luxembourgish at home.
Luxembourgish is mutually intelligible with German, and two people can easily have a conversation while speaking the two different languages. Thus, Luxembourgish-speaking children can easily pick up German at school. However, some of Lorché’s peers grew up speaking a different language at home, for example, Portuguese or Italian. They initially struggled more in school than she did because German was so different from their mother tongue.
According to the most recent statistics from the Ministry of Education, around 98 percent of Luxembourg’s population speaks French. English is the second most common language, spoken by around 80 percent of the population. German follows close behind, with around 78 percent of the population speaking that language. Additionally, English is the most common language among Luxembourg’s ever-growing international population.
Sabrina Mikes, an American who studied and worked in Luxembourg, said the country’s official trilingualism can be “somewhat misleading.” That’s because Luxembourg is highly multilingual.
“Many people speak Portuguese and English in addition to the country’s government languages,” Mikes said.
Monyck De Sa Santos, a Brazilian master’s student who works as a research assistant at a university’s cultural affairs office, said her experiences have further illustrated this point. She speaks English and French at work. Outside the office, she uses French for most interactions unless she’s with another member of the country’s sizeable Portuguese-speaking population.
Karo Fernandez, a human resources professional at a law firm who is originally from Colombia, speaks French, English, Spanish, and German, often in that order.
So, while the country is officially trilingual, the lived reality of residents, particularly immigrants, often includes more languages.
A spike in immigration to Luxembourg
According to recent census data, the number of foreigners living in Luxembourg has increased by around 38 percent over the last decade. Around 47.2 percent of the population is now foreign-born, and around 18 percent of native Luxembourgians hold a second nationality. That percentage will likely increase as the government streamlines the path to citizenship.
Historically, immigrants to the Grand Duchy have come from nearby countries such as France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Portugal. However, in recent years, more have arrived from countries outside of the European Union.
The government wants to increase the international workforce for economic reasons (the country relies on cross-border workers and immigrants for many industries) and to be a global hub.
Pro-immigration policies include charging non-EU nationals very affordable tuition, from 200 to 400 Euros a semester for university. In comparison, most public universities in neighboring France charge non-EU students around 1,500 Euros a semester. Additionally, attractive tax benefits have led many multinational companies, such as Amazon, Paypal, and Rakuten, to set up their EU headquarters in Luxembourg.
The growing prevalence of English
Luxembourg has also benefited from Brexit, when the United Kingdom left the European Union, by welcoming more English-speaking workers who would have previously gone to the United Kingdom.
Bianca Pirrelli, a multilingual Italian immigrant, sees Luxembourg as the new London in Europe because there is so much migration.
She said it often differs from other European countries, where you need to know the country’s language before living there to interact with daily life, and English is an “extra asset.” In Luxembourg, immigrants from different countries usually use English as their common language.
Lorché, the Luxembourgian, told me that while multilingualism has always been the norm, the biggest shift in her lifetime is “the increasing importance of English in Luxembourg.”
Speaking Luxembourgish
Luxembourgish is the native language of most Luxembourgers, and a little over 70 percent of the population uses it in everyday life. However, according to the UNESCO Atlas of World Languages, Luxembourgish is still a vulnerable language.
According to the 2021 census, French and English are the most used languages at work, while Luxembourgish is most common at home. Still, the study only surveyed residents. Cross-border workers, primarily French speakers from Belgium and France, did not participate.
Nevertheless, the prevalence of Luxembourgish is growing, if slowly, for a few reasons. First, people must take a language test when applying for Luxembourgish citizenship. The streamlining of Luxembourg nationality applications for non-EU nationals has increased with the number of foreigners moving to the country. The flexibility of an EU passport is desirable to many, even if it necessitates learning a new language.
Many non-European expats, including De Sa Santos, explained that the language requirement was a big motivation for eventually learning Luxembourgish. She also wants to understand her partner, who is from Luxembourg, and his friends in social situations.
Mikes echoed the need for the language to enter Luxembourgish social circles, and Fernandez noted that knowing the language can open doors in some professional sectors.
Lorché, who works with immigrant children to help welcome them to the country, says that she interacts with children from all over the world, each with a unique linguistic background.
“This has opened my eyes to the sheer diversity of languages spoken in Luxembourg today,” Lorché said. “Far beyond the three official languages and English.”
Sydney Baker is a travel writer from the Pacific Northwest who has lived in Australia, Québec, Luxembourg, and France.
