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The American-Luxembourgers Survey
Updated: January 9th, 2024
Written by: Daniel Atz with Lauren Lowell
Why are so many Americans applying for Luxembourgish citizenship? This is the first survey to measure how these new dual citizens see Luxembourg and their future in Europe.
The American-Luxembourgers Survey
Updated: January 9th, 2024
Written by: Daniel Atz with Lauren Lowell
Why are so many Americans applying for Luxembourgish citizenship? This is the first survey to measure how these new dual citizens see Luxembourg and their future in Europe.
View Our Other 🇺🇸🇱🇺 Studies: Ancestors | Dual Citizens | Survey | View All Studies
Background
From July 11th to July 26th, 2023, we ran an open survey of American-Luxembourgish dual citizens through ancestry. 416 confirmed dual citizens participated, representing a wide range of ages and demographics.
The following is the second edition of the only systematic survey of the American-Luxembourger dual citizens. In it, respondents provided answers to questions on their future in Luxembourg and motivations for applying for dual citizenship. The responses come from roughly 81% LuxCitizenship clients and 19% other American-Luxembourgers.
American and Brazilian Luxembourgish dual citizens talk about how they see Luxembourg in their future.
Let’s Put It in Perspective
The number of Luxembourgish citizens in the United States has grown from 3,602 in 2018 to 14,972 Luxembourgish citizens in 2023.
Ipigott, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Why does that matter? To start, that’s 316% growth over 5 years. Today, the United States is the fifth foreign country with the most Luxembourgish citizens in residence.
In fact, the population of Luxembourgers in the US in now is equivalent to 2% of Luxembourg’s national population.
That’s 3,000 more people than the population of the Commune of Bettembourg, Luxembourg’s 8th largest commune. By 2025, we expect it will be equivalent to Hesperange (#7).
Key Findings
Having analyzed the results of our survey conducted in July 2023, we have highlighted some general findings.
Of all the American-Luxembourgers who participated in our survey, there are several key takeaways that the majority had in common:
1. 75% of the respondents want to learn Luxembourgish
2. The population is evenly split 50/50 between respondents wanting to use their new citizenship to move abroad one day or not.
3. 18% of all respondents expressed an interest in moving to Luxembourg one day
4. 6.5% of respondents are interested to move to Luxembourg in the next five years and 22.2% of those are multilingual.
Citizenship Status
We asked the respondents about the basics of their Luxembourgish citizenship.
When did they apply?
100% of our survey respondents have already obtained Luxembourgish dual citizenship. Furthermore, 31% indicated that they have obtained a Luxembourgish passport, which is significantly lower than for Brazilians and similar to Argentina.
Year Citizenship Was Received
Have Luxembourgish Passport
Have Luxembourgish Passport
International Experience
We asked the dual citizens about their experiences outside the United States.
Who’s Been to the Grand Duchy?
While not all of our respondents had to travel to Luxembourg to complete their citizenship applications, 70.2% reported that they have already visited Luxembourg. 32.9% of respondents reported that they have visited the Grand Duchy 2 or more times.
Traveled to Luxembourg
How many times?
Time Spent Outside the United States
Just over 38% of the survey respondents have lived outside of the United States. 20% have worked abroad in some capacity. These are both very high figures in comparison with the national average in the United States.
Have You Lived Abroad?
For What Purpose?
*Respondents could make multiple choices
Multilingualism
The US is famously monolingual. Most people in Luxembourg speak 4-5 languages. Where do the dual citizens land?
Speak a Foreign Language?
17.1% of the dual citizen respondents speak a foreign language fluently. The standard used for this question in the survey was “do you have the ability to fluidly use a language for the responsibilities of your work”.
Do You Speak a Foreign Language?
Languages Spoken
*Respondents could make multiple choices
While 17.1% of respondents speak at least one foreign language, 3.4% speak two foreign languages or more.
Schwätzt Dir Lëtzebuergesch?
The dual citizens reflect the national US average of around 20% speaking a foreign language. Despite this, the number of dual citizens interested to learn Luxembourgish is overwhelming.
LearnLuxembourgish.com is a wonderful resource to start learning Luxembourgish
Interested in Learning Luxembourgish?
Interest to Move
Do these new dual citizens plan to put their Luxembourgish passport to use? How do they see their future in Europe?
From the US to the EU – Moving to Luxembourg
As many as 18% of the dual citizens living in the United States are considering a move to Luxembourg one day. Additionally, 25% would consider moving to another EU country.
Want to Move to the EU?
Of respondents that expressed interest in moving to the EU in the next five years, 66% indicated they would make the move with their spouse, 16.5% with their children, and 17.5% would go alone.
Where are they headed?
1.7% of American dual citizen respondents, about 7 people, are considering a move to Luxembourg in the next two years. As far as other popular destinations people want to move to, France, Portugal, and Germany are the most popular.
Move To Luxembourg - When
What other EU country?
Application Motivations
What drove these Americans to apply for Luxembourgish dual citizenship?
Dual Citizenship Motivations
Our respondents overwhelmingly listed that their pride for their Luxembourgish heritage and the desire to reconnect with the land of their ancestors were primary motivators in their decision to apply for Luxembourgish citizenship.
Now that they have obtained Luxembourgish citizenship, the same respondents have varying plans for their future with Europe, with the largest percentage hoping to retire there.
*Respondents could make multiple choices and the percentage is based on the number of respondents that answered each question.
Potential Interests
Application Motivators
Congratulations! You have completed reading our study on the American-Luxembourgers.
Interested in reading LuxCitizenship’s other case studies? Check out our overview page to navigate all our studies.
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Congratulations! You have completed reading our study on the American-Luxembourgers.
Interested in reading LuxCitizenship’s other case studies? Check out our overview page to navigate all our studies.
All Case Studies