OPINION
What policies and practices do expats want from the next Luxembourg government?
Not all foreigners living in Luxembourg are the same. They come in many shapes and sizes with different cultural orientations and many points of view. We in AMCHAM can not and do not claim we can speak for al of them.
But, after talking with many of our AMCHAM members, we have noticed there are quite a lot of commonalities among our members and we can speak to those common points of views and beliefs. So, what do our constituents think and want from the next government? In this short essay, I will give you both a short and a longer, more complex answer Here goes:
Who is the average AMCHAM constituency member?
- A college educated, first and second language English speaker born and raised outside of Luxembourg, working at executive level in an internationally focused business. A bit more than half will have long term partners and children accompanying them.
- Most are living in rented housing, preferably in urban areas close to Luxembourg city.
What are the topics which stress and frighten AMCHAM constituency Expats when they first arrive in Luxembourg?
- Limited selection and high cost of living accommodations for both individuals and families
- Unexpected extent of risk of crime, vagrancy and drug trafficing in urban areas
- High cost and limited capacity of English-speaking schools for children
Limited capacity for life-long learning - Integration difficulties caused by multi-lingualism and limited acceptance of English as a business, government and social language communications medium
- Difficulties for accompanying partners to get governmental permission to work
- High cost of living
- Belief that indexation of salaries causes more harm than benefit by actually increasing inflation, overcompensating underperforming employees and undercompensating eager high performers
Limited social scene for singles (of all ages|) - Difficulty opening and keeping access to full-service bank accounts
What do our expat members want?
- Fairness of treatment
- Safety for themselves, their companies and their families
- To be respected and appreciated
- Opportunity to work hard for just compensation, make profit and grow their wealth
Conclusion:
While Luxembourg remains an attractive work and living location, it continues to be losing its relative attractiveness as compared to other competing locations. If these challenges are not suitably addressed by government decisionmakers, it will become ever more difficult to recruit and retain the out of country skilled talent required to keep the Luxembourg economic ecosystem vibrant and healthy.
