The Luxembourg nationality law of 23 October 2008, which introduced double ius soli and the toleration of dual or multiple citizenship, represented a paradigm shift in direction of liberalisation and openness of citizenship legislation. The vote of a new nationality law by parliament on 9 February, 2017 was a further milestone in the history of Luxembourgish citizenship, among others introducing conditional simple ius soli at the age of majority, lowering residence period before naturalisation and reintroducing option rights to citizenship.
In 2008, 278 thousand people (58 percent) out of a resident population of 484 thousand had Luxembourg citizenship. In 2022, 342 thousand Luxembourgers, thus 64 thousand more than in 2008, live in the Grand Duchy (total population in 2022: 646 thousand; 53 percent Luxembourgers). Furthermore, through the ‘re-ethnicising’ article 29 of the 2008 law – a person can re-acquire Luxembourgish citizenship provided he or she has a male or female ancestor who possessed Luxembourgish citizenship on 1 January 1900 – 36 thousand new Luxembourg citizens, mostly living abroad, have to be added to these figures. Hence around 100 thousand Luxembourgers were added in only 13 years, an increase of more than one-third.
In this seminar, drawing on the Luxembourg case, Denis Scuto will analyse the link between migration and citizenship policies, on one side, and migrants’ attitudes, strategies and behaviour towards citizenship acquisition, on the other.