Audiotur Walk in the footsteps of migration in Luxembourg City

Migrant workers‘ contribution to Luxembourg’s economic boom since the last third of the 19th century until the 21st century is undisputed. Italians, Portuguese and Cape Verdians initially settled mostly in the economically depressed districts of the city, where setting up their own businesses was rarely easy. But already before the 20th century, the former fortified town was a place of immigration for garrison soldiers, stonemasons and other craftsmen. Before the Second World War, the representation of the "Red Star Line" was to be found in the capital, where locals, mostly driven by the threat to their livelyhoods, bought their tickets for overseas emigration. Since the second half of the 20th century, the professional opportunities of the capital have been attracting more and more highly qualified and highly paid specialists from abroad. Yet what is good for the global economy of the country and the city also affects the social fabric of the city. Financially less well-off workers from the country and from abroad can no longer afford to live in the more and more gentrified city and become commuters.
 
The tour guide, drawn up by students of the Historical Institute of the University of Luxembourg, reveals well-known and less well-known venues of municipal and national migration history. Several stories, that you will discover during your discovery journey through the city tell success stories, others tell of everyday life, conflicts and struggles for recognition. The aim of the city guide is to introduce you to the realities of life facing migrants through the centuries and thus to contribute to the perception of migration history as an essential part of Luxembourg's history.
 
On the tour you will come across photographs and films from the collections of the municipal Photothèque, from private collections as well as from the Centre national de l'Audiovisuel (CNA). 
 
Creation of the city guide: Marie-Paule Jungblut, edutainment.uni.lu at the Institute for History-Uni.lu; Historical consulting: Prof. Dr. Michel Pauly, Institute for History-Uni.lu. Our thanks also go to ASTI for their moral support and for the French and English translations.