The finding is not new, but a study by LISER, commissioned by the Ministry of Economy under the title Lux-Talent, puts the scale of it clearly in perspective: without foreign workers, Luxembourg’s labour market simply would not function. The number of people moving to Luxembourg for work has more than doubled since 2002, rising from around 4,000 to over 8,000 per year. Cross-border workers tell a similar story, growing from 12,000 new entrants in 2002 to 15,000 in 2024. That same year, nearly 3,000 people from countries beyond Luxembourg’s immediate neighbours also took up new positions in the Grand Duchy.
Luxembourg currently counts 228,000 cross-border workers, accounting for 47% of the total workforce. In 2024 alone, almost 10,000 new cross-border workers arrived from France, with fewer than 3,000 each coming from Germany and Belgium.
Increasingly, however, these cross-border workers were not born in the neighbouring country from which they commute. LISER researcher Joël Machado points to the Portuguese community as a telling example. While the number of Portuguese nationals moving to live in Luxembourg is declining, the number commuting from across the border is rising, suggesting a trend towards settling in the border region and travelling in to work. By 2024, one in ten new cross-border workers held Portuguese nationality, and over 60% of Belgian cross-border workers were not born in Belgium.
Whether a foreign worker chooses to live in Luxembourg or commute likely depends in part on their sector. Those working in specialised services or finance tend to settle in the country, as do a large share of those in the hospitality industry. Cross-border workers and non-residents, by contrast, are more concentrated in transport and storage, construction, and commerce and administrative services.
Machado notes a clear sectoral divide, which may well be linked to housing costs. In higher-paying sectors, workers may be better placed to afford life in Luxembourg, while those in lower-wage industries find it more practical to live across the border.
What unites many of Luxembourg’s foreign workers though, whether resident or cross-border, is a tendency not to stay for long; 30% remain for less than a year, and almost half leave within five years. Luxembourg’s foreign workforce is, in Machado’s words, a mobile population that ebbs and flows with the country’s broader economic fortunes.
