Sylvie Schmit, Managing Director of European Relocation Services
It has been a while since the new law concerning spouse work permit has been voted – do you already see an impact?
The new law is greatly appreciated by our expatriates, but to date we still have a large number of companies that have not implemented it because they don’t know the exact rules and how to put it into practice.
We already have clients who have benefited from this new law.
Unfortunately, not everything is so easy going in practice.
Certain problems cannot be avoided and must be resolved quite quickly:
- Lack of knowledge of one of Luxembourg’s official languages (French or German), which is often a key criterion. English language is not enough (two languages are required)
- Recognition of diplomas takes time and is very complicated, if not impossible (e.g. medical sector, teaching, etc.). There is missing some flexibility there to make it happen.
- Education abroad is often not recognized or not equivalent to the one of Luxembourg.
- Etcetera…
What consequences does this have for the talent attraction industry in Luxembourg?
Applications from expatriates seconded here for short periods (one or two years) are often not considered because they do not have a future career. Couldn’t these candidates bring us excellent know how and be well formulated?
Could a talent take the decision to stay and not return to his country? Most of them do stay as they love Luxembourg
What has changed on the unemployment and employment market?
ADEM is already making a lot of progress in offering training, language courses, etc… for unemployed expats but several authorities need to talk to each other and make some efforts to open some doors. What will happen with the kids if mum and dad are working without any family member to take care of them? Is our system capable enough to enroll?
Onboarding a talent might create more jobs and take some unemployed people
Bear in mind as well that some jobs created abroad do not even exist here in Luxembourg. Do we want to give our local employees a chance to be trained with international knowhow? Is there space for new job creation, or start ups?
Research, technology, sustainability, etc… are still interesting sectors.
Interested in other perspectives? Read what Laurent Peusch, Head of the Employers Services at ADEM and Virginie Todesco, Immigration Assistant Manager at Fragomen have to say about the new spouse work permit law.
