Part 18. Portuguese in Luxembourg – Time-line. Almost 1 in 6 residents of Luxembourg are Portuguese nationals, influencing the music scene and Sagres beers in the supermarkets to piri-piri restaurants and football clubs like FC Hamm Benfica.
2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the bilateral accords that triggered the Portuguese immigration.
Pre-existing Relations
Bilateral relations between Portugal and Luxembourg were established in 1891, and in 1893, Grand Duke William IV married Maria Ana of Bragança, daughter of deposed King Miguel of Portugal (1828 – 1834). The couple had six daughters, including Grand Duchesses Marie Adelaide and Charlotte (1919-1964), the latter being the grandmother of current Grand Duke Henri. Grand Duchess Charlotte married Prince Felix of Parma, also grandson of Miguel of Portugal. Grand Duchess Charlotte escaped the Nazi invasion in mid-1940, spending a number of weeks in Cascais, near Lisbon, then moving to Britain. Prince Felix's mother Maria Antonia, Duchess of Parma, dies and is buried in Luxembourg.
Dictatorship in Portugal
By the 1960s, Portugal had been suffering under the authoritarian rule of Prime Minister Antonio de Oliveira Salazar for over 30 years. Salazar’s Estado Novo (New State) was a corporatist state, similar to Mussolini’s rule in Italy. Envisioning Portugal as a pluricontinental state, Salazar’s regime was extremely reluctant to relinquish its control over its colonies in Africa and Asia.
Refusal to hand over power to independence movements in Angola, Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau) and Mozambique led to the various conflicts known collectively as the Portuguese Colonial War from 1961 onwards. The war led many Portuguese to flee conscription and also exacerbated pre-existing economic problems as the costs of supplying a colonial war spiralled. Before 1970, some Portuguese had begun to arrive in Luxembourg without proper authorisation.
The Portuguese Migration
With Italian immigration slowing and even beginning to reverse, and native Luxembourgers increasingly turning towards the emerging financial sectors, the Luxembourgish government was aware that the country required an influx of foreign workers. In May 1970, Luxembourg and Portugal signed a bilateral agreement allowing Luxembourgish companies to recruit Portuguese workers, primarily in the construction industry.
At the census of December 1970, the population of Portuguese in Luxembourg had increased to 5783; none had been recorded in 1960. Luxembourg was especially keen on attracting Portuguese migrants as they were predominantly white and Catholic, rather than, for example, Muslim Turks, who were beginning to arrive in large numbers in Germany.
Even a substantial population of Cape Verdean Portuguese ended up in Luxembourg: today, there are more Cape Verdeans (2621) than Americans (2180) in the Grand Duchy. The initial waves of Portuguese workers were eventually allowed to bring their families with them, leading to the development of a settled expatriate community in Luxembourg. In some cases, whole villages apparently travelled en masse from Portugal to Luxembourg to benefit from greater economic opportunities. The Portuguese population was almost 30,000 in 1981, over 80,000 by 2011.
The Portuguese are concentrated in the north-east, accounting for up to 45% of the population in the town of Larochette, as well as in the south-east around Esch-sur-Alzette and Differdange, and in the capital. Official statistics recorded a slight drop from 96,000 to 95,000 in 2019, although the Portuguese Consulate has estimated that the real number is closer to 120,000. As the chart shows, a large proportion (almost 25%) of Portuguese in Luxembourg were born in the country, demonstrating the enduring roots of the community.
Read other parts of this series HERE.
