A sharp rise of 3,574 in the number of Luxembourgers registered in the US within a year is drawing attention to the country’s nationality laws. Most of them are not migrants themselves, but descendants of Luxembourgers, which raises a number of questions.
This trend is not immediately visible in official nationality statistics. However, a closer look at the national population register shows that the number of Luxembourgers living in the US rose from 17,380 at the end of 2024 to 20,954 by the end of 2025. This contrasts with figures from the Ministry of Justice, which record only 657 new Luxembourgers from the US over the same period.
There is no error in the figures. The roughly 3,000 additional Luxembourgers are not included in nationality statistics because they were already considered Luxembourg citizens under the law. As Justice Minister Elisabeth Margue explained, there are essentially two ways of becoming Luxembourgish: either automatically under the law, or through a voluntary application.
Voluntary application involves actively applying for nationality through the Ministry of Justice, whether via naturalisation, option, or reclaiming. This applies to the 657 “new” Luxembourgers recorded in the official statistics.
All others were already Luxembourgish by law but were only recently registered in official figures after coming into contact with Luxembourg authorities and documenting their nationality. Their children are then also entered into the national population register.
Under Luxembourg nationality law, a person is automatically Luxembourgish:
In addition, nationality is determined by the law in force at the time of a person’s birth. According to Margue, this means that, when the relevant provisions are considered together, many people may in fact be Luxembourgish without being aware of it, or without the authorities having formally identified them as such.
Around 157,000 Luxembourgers live abroad. However, the total number of citizens worldwide remains difficult to estimate, particularly as nationality is automatically passed on from parents to children. Those concerned retain full rights, including voting and the possibility to live and work in Luxembourg at any time.
For some, this growing diaspora represents an opportunity. Daniel Atz, who obtained Luxembourg nationality through his great-grandmother, now helps US citizens reclaim or confirm their Luxembourgish roots. He says demand is strong but believes a broader public debate is needed: not only on what it means to be Luxembourgish, but also on integrating 50,000 people from different cultural backgrounds.
According to Margue, questions around nationality and the link to the country must be revisited regularly. The nationality law was last reformed in 2017.
The possibility of reclaiming Luxembourg nationality through an ancestor who was Luxembourgish in 1900 expired at the end of last year. Margue is now considering whether another reform is needed, stressing that the issue is both important and sensitive, as it affects society as a whole and raises fundamental questions about national identity.
Any reform during the current legislative period would be pursued in consultation with other political parties, she said.
The issue of voting rights for Luxembourgers living abroad has also been raised by Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel, who recently suggested in conversation with RTL that this question should be examined more closely.
