Portuguese Luxembourger

Infobox Ethnic group
group = Portuguese Luxembourgers
population = Over 59,000
popplace = Throughout Luxembourg
region1 = Esch-sur-Alzette canton
pop1 = 21,514
ref1 = fr icon cite web | url=http://www.statistiques.public.lu/stat/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=1065 | title=Population par subdivision territoriale et selon la nationalité 2001 | accessdate=2007-07-01 | publisher=Statec ]
region2 = Luxembourg canton
pop2 = 16,696
ref2 =
region3 = Diekirch canton
pop3 = 5,043
ref3 =
languages = Portuguese, Luxembourgish, French
religions = Roman Catholicism
related = Other Portuguese peopleA Portuguese Luxembourger or Lusoburguês is a person in Luxembourg that either was born in Portugal or is of Portuguese ancestry. Although estimates of the total Portuguese Luxembourg population vary, there are 59,000 people in Luxembourg with Portuguese nationality. They constitute 13% of the population of Luxembourg, which makes them one of the largest ethnic group as a proportion of the total national population.

Demographics

It is illegal to collect statistics about the race, ethnicity, or ancestry of Luxembourg citizens, which makes it very difficult to come to a proper estimate of the number of Portuguese Luxembourgers. In the 2001 census, there were 58,657 inhabitants with Portuguese nationality, up from negligibly few in 1960.fr icon cite web | url=http://www.statistiques.public.lu/stat/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=1075 | title=Population totale par nationalité 1875 - 2001 | accessdate=2007-07-01 | publisher=Statec ] These may include Brazilians and Africans of Portuguese descent.

History

From 1875 onwards, Luxembourg's economy relied upon the immigration of cheap labour to work in the country's steel mills and to counter the natural demographic decline of the native ethnic Luxembourgian population. [Cordeiro (1976), pp. 95–6] The successive waves of immigrants were predominated by Germans and Italians, but, by the 1960s, the influx of foreign workers from these countries slowed, as their home countries' economies had recovered. By 1967, the Italian expatriate population had begun to decline as Italians returned home. [Cordeiro (1976), p. 37] This coincided with the rise of a booming financial services sector, which caused native Luxembourgers to turn away from industrial jobs.

The mid-1960s saw the arrival of the first Portuguese people to Luxembourg. At the time, Portugal was ruled as a corporatist military dictatorship, and an economic downturn coincided with the so-called 'Academic Crisis' and deteriorating conditions in Portugal's colonies to put further pressure on many young Portuguese people to emigrate.

The two governments signed a treaty in Lisbon in 1970 to allow family unification, and this was enshrined in Luxembourg law in 1972. [fr icon cite web | url=http://www.legilux.public.lu/leg/a/archives/1972/0262004/0262004.pdf#page=16 | title=Mémorial A, 1972, No. 26 | accessdate=2007-06-25 | format=PDF | publisher=Service central de législation ] This turned the Portuguese community into a self-sustaining unit, marking it out as separate from the Germans, who had little desire to move permanently to Luxembourg, and Italians, who were not granted special status for family immigration.

When Portugal entered the European Economic Community in 1986, Portuguese citizens were to be guaranteed equal rights to the Luxembourg labour market as Luxembourg citizens. All countries were given a transitional period of seven years to adapt to the new conditions, during which they could impose restrictions upon immigration from Portugal (and Spain, the other new EEC member). Luxembourg was given a longer transitional period, of ten years, as the government feared a large influx of Portuguese immigrants. When, in 1990, the Luxembourg government found that immigration had barely increased since 1985, it dropped its limitations.

Footnotes

References

* Citation | first = Albano | last = Cordeiro | contribution = | contribution-url = | title = Immigration - Luxembourg 1975: Aspects économiques, historiques et sociologiques | year = 1976 | pages = | place = Luxembourg City | publisher = Secrétariat d'État à l'Immigration | url = | doi = | id =