On Tuesday 8 December 2015, Minister for Family and Integration, Corinne Cahen, officially congratulated 60 people on completing their 'Contrat d'accueil et d'Intégration' (CAI) inthe presence of Director of neimënster, Ainhoa Achutegui.

CAI was created under the Act of 16 December 2008 regarding the reception and integration of foreigners into the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and is a government instrument for the facilitation of non-Luxembourgers into the country.

Any individual from the European Union or third countries, aged 16 or over and legally settled in Luxembourg is entitled to sign the contract and receive specific discounted language training, civic courses and an orientation day. The contract is valid for a period of two years from the date of the first showing.

Heather Hermina Kanost, who has been living in Luxembourg since June 2015, was welcomed by Minister Cahen during the ceremony. Heather represented the 4000th person to join the integration initiative since its inception in October 2011, which has spanned 132 different nationalities gathering in favour of Luxembourg integration.

74% of the CAI signatories were aged between 25 and 45 years old, with the majority (55%) from EU Member States and mostly female (63%). The majority of CAI users also joined French language courses, at 51%, with Luxembourgish lessons sought by 43% of signatories.

At the ceremony, Corinne Cahen thanked CAI partners for their support in helping to create the benefits of CAI which, the Minister stated, "allows signatories to understand the country in which they live and the host society to understand who they are." She further called on signatories to become ambassadors of the 'contrat d'accueil et d'intégration' and in particular to register as voters for the upcoming communal elections which will take place in October 2017.

"Registering oneself on the lists is to show interest in the whole country," the Minister concluded.

Those interested injoining the CAI contract can contact OLAI to make an appointment for an informal session at +352 247 857 85 or cai@olai.etat.lu.

Photos by OLAI