Luxembourg having hard time attracting talented workers from outside the EU

Many Luxembourg companies rely more and more on workers from abroad. And yet hiring in the Greater Region can no longer cover the needs of the labor market. However, those who hire people outside the EU face a number of difficulties. Representatives of the business federation Fedil looked at them in more detail.

First, work permits in the Grand Duchy are issued too slowly. Without such a permission working in the country is illegal. And you can spend up to four months waiting for one. An amendment that established such a deadline was adopted back in 2008. The world has accelerated greatly since then, but the bureaucracy has not become faster.

You have to wait just as long for a permanent residence permit. Often, a temporary residence permit expires long before this one is issued. Even if the employee submitted all the documents on time. Because of this, many employment contracts are temporarily frozen.

Acceleration is needed so that businesses can quickly hire skilled workers from all over the world. We also need communication between the authorities, workers and business. Each employee should be able to check the status of their documents at any time.

Language barriers and household crisis

Fedil criticizes the fact that during the paperwork, officials almost do not use English while communicating with people. Although it’s not one of the official languages ​​of Luxembourg, it should be used more often. People who previously lived outside the EU usually know it much better than French.

The business federation also questioned the usefulness of the certificate issued by the national job portal Adem. It confirms the legality of employment for workers with a work visa.

The last thing experts noted was that the housing crisis in the country had a bad effect on hiring from abroad. It is not only difficult for workers to rent an apartment at the high local price. Often the owners simply do not trust them.