Luxembourg Integration Approach Moves Towards 'Intercultural Living Together'

A newly presented draft law will see "integration" make way for "intercultural living together" in Luxembourg.

 

Luxembourg's Minister for Family Affairs and Integration, Corinne Cahen, recently presented the draft law on intercultural living together which amends the amended law of 8 March 2017 on Luxembourg nationality. This draft law aims to replace the current "integration" approach with a broader and more open approach to "intercultural living together".

 

Following a public consultation, the present draft law provides a global overhaul of the instruments of intercultural living together and repeals the amended law of 16 December 2008 on the integration of foreigners in the Grand Duchy.

 

More concretely, the draft law aims to implement this approach of intercultural living together through the following instruments: a national action plan for intercultural living together; a citizens' pact of intercultural living together; a programme for intercultural living together; a municipal pact for intercultural living together (Pakt vum Zesummeliewen).

 

The national action plan defines the strategic axes of intercultural living together, the political orientations and objectives as well as the actions and measures to be implemented. The citizens' pact is a moral commitment that people who live or work in Luxembourg can sign to subscribe to the values of intercultural living together. This signature gives them access to the intercultural living together programme, which will replace the current welcome and integration contract and the accompanied integration pathway to offer a catalogue of learning modules and information about the Grand Duchy. It is open to residents and cross-border workers. According to the Ministry of Family Affairs, Integration and the Greater Region, it will be continuously adapted to the needs of people living in the country and aims at an immersive approach that allows participants to discover the functioning of the country by putting them in contact with national and local actors and by promoting dialogue and exchange with other people living or working in Luxembourg.

 

Moreover, the new municipal pact aims to support Luxembourg's municipalities in the implementation of their strategy at local level. In addition to financial aid, which contributes to the costs of a pact coordinator and subsidises the implementation of measures in the municipality, the pact also offers support to the signatory municipalities by intercultural living together advisors, who are State employees.

 

At the national level, the draft law aims to create a council (Conseil supérieur) which participates in the implementation of intercultural living together. This will replace the current inter-ministerial committee on integration and the National Council for Foreigners. It is composed of representatives of the State, civil society and municipalities. The focus is on the municipalities, which, according to the Family Affairs Ministry, is justified by the fact that barriers to living together are most often identified at local level and the specificities of each region and municipality must be transmitted to the national level to ensure a coherent national strategy.

 

At the municipal level, municipal committees for intercultural living together will replace the current municipal advisory committees on integration. Their tasks include identifying priorities and possible obstacles in the field of intercultural living together at the municipal level, assisting the municipality in the development and implementation of measures and activities to promote intercultural living together at the municipal level, and promoting access to information, civic participation and community life. Members of the municipal committees can stand for election as representatives of the municipalities to the Board of Governors. The committee members will also elect the municipal representatives to the Conseil supérieur. Cross-border workers can be members of the municipal committee of the municipality in which they work.

 

The ministry assured that in all the measures and bodies set up under this draft law, the fight against racism and all forms of discrimination at the level of the municipality is a key and transversal element.

 

The draft law also defines the financial aid that the State can grant in the field of intercultural living together. This may take the form of a subsidy, a financial contribution to operating costs or a financial contribution to investment costs.