Ladies and Gentlemen,
I’m very honoured to open the international conference on the impact of immigration in Europe. I’d like to thank the organisers of the conference, Professor Craig Parsons of the European Centre at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University as well as Professor Tim Smeeding, the director of the well-known Luxembourg Income Study - better known under the acronym of L.I.S.
L.I.S. is an institute supported by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and which is closely linked to the new University of Luxembourg.
It is befitting that the conference is held in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, a country in which at least one of three inhabitants are foreigners, a country which also has a long record of immigration going back to the end of the 19th century, a country which has been shaped by the successive waves of foreign workers.
I understood that this conference was conceived by American academics. The experience from the U.S., a country built on immigration, may well yield some fresh insights that would help solving the migration issues the "old world" is facing now.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Who is considered to be a foreigner or an immigrant?
It is quite challenging to define and count immigrants, even for statisticians. The data sources at hand are quite patchy and far from harmonised. A foreigner is defined differently, depending on the country: some are identified through their place of birth – they are “foreign-born” whereas others are counted under the nationality criterion. So, ignoring data problems, it is surprising that, according to the OECD, only 2,5% of the world population is living in other countries!
To illustrate the difficulty to define immigrants think of the enlargement of Europe.
In May, 75 million citizens of Eastern and Central Europe joined the Union. Those who were considered immigrants became full EU citizens and are now able to benefit from the freedom to move to other member states and to work wherever they like. This is an issue that made some countries nervous, but now it seems that fears of a flood of new workers arriving in existing Member States was wrong.
Immigration is a very controversial issue because of its likely impact, whether it be positive or negative, on labour markets, social cohesiveness and cultural identity of the host country. Many are also worried about the long-term effects of immigration on public finance: how sustainable are healthcare and the pension system, and how able are they to deal with this increased burden? Ironically, healthcare itself depends to a large extent on immigration to fill its skills shortages. So it now seems that immigration is not the easy way out of the budgetary crisis of the welfare state that some had hoped for, and that it is merely a temporary solution to a deeper, structural problem.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Luxembourg is a country with a long tradition of immigration, going back to the 19th century of our young nation, which was founded in 1839. Our neighbours the French, Belgians and Germans, as well as the Italians helped to build up the metals industry and thereby contributed to the development of a very poor country. Later, the Portuguese came to Luxembourg to work in the construction sector and many other European, American and Asian employees, investors and entrepreneurs have since joined the country.
Today, almost 40% of the population are non-nationals, out of whom 90% are European citizens. As much as 65% of the workforce are comprised of non-nationals living in Luxembourg and cross border workers living in France, Belgium and Germany.
The growing population is at the origin of several problems. The OECD, in its 2003 country review, devoted a special chapter to the immigration problems that Luxembourg will need to deal with in the next years. The authors pointed out several challenges: the efficiency of the education system, the congestion of infrastructures and the overheating of the housing market. A report by the International Labor Organization finds that Luxembourg will furthermore continue to depend on immigrant and trans-border labour for the foreseeable future as regards the financing of our pension system.
There are some political challenges to be met as well: encouraging immigrants to participate in political, cultural and social life. We have to bring natives and immigrants together and provide a united vision of the future.
On this topic, I’m looking forward to see what the conclusions of the study of my collaborators, M. Allegrezza and M. Langers have to tell us about the degree of integration of immigrants.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The European Union and its Member States are very keen on combating any form of discrimination. It is seen as important that equal opportunities exist, in order to facilitate the movement of workers to other countries: on one hand this benefits the immigrants who face better employment opportunities, on the other hand the host country will profit from much needed skills. Mobility is essential for a well functioning currency area like the euro zone.
I’m sure that the papers of this conference will provide many insights and shed light on these interwoven issues of immigration, economics, mobility, education, social integration and civil rights.
I wish you a fruitful conference and an interesting debate and I hope that you will enjoy the hospitality of my country.
Thank you.