Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg' Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Minister of Immigration and Asylum;
Credit: MAEE
On Monday 7 February 2022, Luxembourg's Minister of Foreign and European Affairs and Minister of Immigration and Asylum, Jean Asselborn, presented an overview of the immigration situation in the Grand Duchy for 2021.
Minister Asselborn noted that whilst 2020 saw free movement notably impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the year 2021 marked a return to a situation comparable to the pre-crisis years.
Last year, the Directorate of Immigration of Luxembourg's Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs processed 17,136 registration certificates (attestation d’enregistrement) issued by municipal administrations to European Union (EU), European Economic Area (EEA) or Swiss nationals (within three months of their arrival in Luxembourg) - a similar number to those processed in 2018 and in 2019. In 2020, the Immigration Directorate had processed a total of 14,396 registration certificates. Last year, the directorate also directly issued 536 replacement registration certificates in 2021.
Similarly, the countries of origin of EU nationals arriving in Luxembourg once again reflected the situation prior to 2020. While in 2020, France ranked first among the countries of origin, last year saw most arrivals come from Portugal, as was the case before the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 4,440 registration certificates were issued to Portuguese nationals, representing one-quarter of all certificates processed. France regained second place (with 3,875 certificates, or 22.61%), while Italy retained third place (with 2,122 certificates, or 12.38%).
Moreover, 2021 saw the Immigration Directorate issue 4,043 permanent residence permits (attestation de séjour permanent) to EU citizens who had acquired the right of permanent residency (compared to 4,100 in 2020 and 5,769 in 2019), as well as 1,471 replacement permanent residence certificates.
During the same period, the directorate issued 1,663 first residence permits (carte de séjour) to third-country nationals, as well as family members of an EU or Luxembourg national. This represents an increase compared to 2020 (1,521 such permits), but remained below the level recorded in 2019 (1,839 permits). Of these 1,663 permits, 223 were issued to people who had previously held another residence document, following a change in their administrative situation. The remaining 1,440 permits were issued to people as their first residence document in Luxembourg.
The main countries of origin of third-country nationals moving to Luxembourg remained largely unchanged compared to previous years, with Brazil (225 permits, or 13.53% of all those issued in 2021) in first place, as was the case in 2019 and 2020. In second and third place respectively were Cape Verde (131 permits, or 7.88%) and Morocco (76 permits, or 4.57%). Moreover, a total of 92 EU family member residence permits were renewed.
In addition, 1,123 permanent residence permits were issued in 2021 to third-country nationals or family members of an EU or Luxembourg national, who had acquired the right of permanent residency, a slightly lower figure than in previous years. Added to this were 1,036 renewals of permanent residence permits, which represented a significant increase compared to previous years (146 in 2019 and 165 in 2020).
