© Carine Lemmer
In conversation with RTL Radio on Tuesday, new Vice-President of the Association in Support of Immigrant Workers (ASTI) Jessica Lopes backed literacy in French but warned against parallel schooling, defended every child's right to education, urged wider democratic participation, and noted rising right-wing rhetoric.
On the government's plan to introduce literacy in French from the second year of preschool, Lopes confirmed ASTI's support. She said language barriers were a well-known obstacle, and any measures to address them were welcome. But she warned it was essential to monitor carefully so as not to create parallel school systems, with some children learning to read and write in German and others in French.
For ASTI, it was vital that children continue to be educated together. Lopes added that schools in Luxembourg still tended to reproduce social inequality, with children from poorer families facing greater difficulties, and that education needed to become a genuine tool of emancipation.
The conversation also turned to ASTI's annual awareness campaign, launched again this year, reminding schools and municipalities that every child living in Luxembourg must be allowed to attend school, even if their parents are not legal residents.
Lopes explained that while most parents were aware of this right, problems persisted with certain municipalities or schools wrongly sending children home and telling families to sort out their status with immigration authorities.
Such situations, she argued, were legally incorrect and morally unacceptable: Luxembourg could not afford to have children living in the country who were denied schooling. Although the problem was not widespread, ASTI continued to encounter cases every year, which she described as concerning.
On ASTI's broader role, Lopes noted that the organisation was still often labelled as "the foreigners' association", but said this no longer reflected its work. She stressed that ASTI engages in neighbourhood initiatives, cooperates closely with municipalities, and promotes intercultural coexistence at all levels, including with the many cross-border commuters who make up half the country's workforce. The board itself, she pointed out, now includes members with diverse expertise, reflecting ASTI's broader mission.
Discussing political participation, Lopes recalled the 2015 referendum in which 78% of voters rejected granting foreigners the right to vote in national elections. A new survey commissioned by ASTI from ILRES showed that, today, a majority of Luxembourgers would be in favour.
She cautioned, however, that focusing solely on the "pro or contra" debate about foreigners' voting rights risked polarising opinion and distracting from the real democratic deficit. At local elections, for example, although nearly half the population are foreigners, only about 15% of eligible voters take part, and less than 2% of those elected are non-Luxembourgish.
She emphasised that underrepresentation extended well beyond foreigners: young people, the private sector, the working class, and women were also marginalised in politics. The real challenge, she said, was to lower barriers to participation and ensure democratic institutions reflected society more accurately. This, she argued, was one of ASTI's main missions, especially through its work with municipalities and local cultural agencies.
Turning to the political climate, Lopes acknowledged that hostile rhetoric had grown louder in recent years, particularly on social media. While often limited to a few loud voices, she warned it was still worrying, as people now expressed views publicly that they might not have dared to share five years ago.
She noted a clear shift to the right, even though Luxembourg's official discourse remained broadly positive about intercultural coexistence. In politics, she observed, immigration policy was becoming harsher, often framed in "law and order" terms.
Addressed with the fact that three-quarters of Luxembourg's population have a migration background, with half not holding Luxembourgish nationality, Lopes argued that fears should not be turned into simple scapegoating.
She stressed that, in practice, coexistence worked well: hundreds of volunteers across the country gave their time and resources to support newcomers in finding work, learning languages, and integrating into society. The real problems, she concluded, were complex and required nuanced solutions rather than simplistic blame.
