In view of the communal elections of 8 October 2017, a group of organisations linked to migration issues have met to reflect on the participation of foreigners in communal life.
The life of a municipality concerns all persons living in its territory, regardless of their origin, nationality, age, sex, occupation or social status and so it is important that all strata of the population are and feel represented. Women, young people and foreigners have always been underrepresented in local councils in relation to their local demographic importance and their contribution to the economic, social, cultural and political development of Luxembourg.
The Luxembourg legislation on the participation of foreigners in communal elections is relatively generous in some respects but rather restrictive in others. Whilst it permits all foreign citizens to be elected, elected and even to become aldermen or mayors, the law imposes a 5-year residence requirement for voter registration. Luxembourg is the only country in the European Union to have such a provision.
The linguistic situation also contributes to this issue. The Luxembourg language has a growing role in political life, but, according to the document resulting from this meeting, it is important not to neglect the other languages of the country. Trilingualism is a strength rather than a weakness, especially for social cohesion.
To increase the number of registrants, therefore, the groups which met proposed the abolition of the residence requirement and to make voter registration as easy as possible.
Some of their concrete proposals to be made to the municipalities and political parties are as follows: put in place a communal plan for integration; offer shelters and housing for asylum seekers along with measures of local integration for these populations; take into account the linguistic particularities of the population of the commune, particularly at the school level; systematically implement projects that promote the learning of the country's languages; support local associations; work for an increased presence of foreign residents, young people and women in all municipal committees; organise intercultural training for communal social, educational and administrative staff; create a single window for integration with the population offices; publish a communal welcome and information guide for all new residents; take account of the diversity of residents in the dissemination of information in the communal bulletin.
