Social Integration in Luxembourg

Luxembourg is a nation that has three national languages, Luxembourgish, French, and German. However, a vast majority of the population in Luxembourg are actually foreigners. Many of these people do not speak one of these three languages and instead bring in their own. This causes Luxembourg to have even more linguistic groups inside its border. The other major languages spoken are English, Italian, and Portuguese, with the Portuguese being a highly populous group. This group is so prevalent that the newspaper my article is in has an option for Portuguese along with English, French, and German. This language barrier can be hard for newcomers and for foreign immigrants because it is hard to integrate in such a diverse area. This can cause there to be tension and turn "international talent" away. By opening a new English based primary school, children can gain an education in Luxembourg and help them become better integrated into society as they age. Also it allows native Luxembourgers to have more opportunities to learn English at a young age and thus allow them to be more integrated into the global community. This can hep mitigate social tension both domestically and internationally as well.

article can be found at Luxemburger Wort - link.

Luxembourg and planetary boundaries

Luxembourg does not have a large agriculture. Agriculture only employs 1% of the population of the workforce, and makes up .3% of the GDP (Official Portal of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg) However, Luxembourg has a heavy use of fertilizers,being nine out of the top ten nations to use fertilizer nutrients on arable and permeant crop land(FAOSTAT). This excessive use of fertilizer can be detrimental to the water supply in Luxembourg. This is because the excess nutrients can disturb the natural processes in the aquatic biomes and contaminate drinking water. Since Luxembourg is such a small nation, it has few natural resources and the pollution and destruction of its few resources can be highly detrimental. 

Luxembourg compared Germany and Denmark

In class we compared and contrasted multiple aspects of our nations with those of others that were similar in some way. As for my group all three of our nations are central European nations. Additionally all three have linked histories and have influenced one another in some fashion. All three speak germanic based languages and have had a history around the Holy Roman Empire. Also all three have high income economies and are leaders in equality. To add to the list of similarities, the three nations are part of the EU. However, Luxembourg differs from the other two in some ways. Unlike Germany and Denmark, Luxembourg has three national languages. Also it was never a colonial power has even been taken over multiple times by its neighbors France and Germany. Its main source of revenue is through banking and does not have many raw materials like that of the other nations. Finally the geographic footprint and population are both really small.

Luxembourg's Characteristics of Development

Luxembourg is a small nation sandwiched between France, Germany, and Belgium. First established in the 900s, Luxembourg had been independent up until the end of the 1400s when it experienced rule or occupation by the French, Austrians, Spanish, and Germans. After both World Wars, the nation was once again fully independent. Over these years Luxembourg has also lost the vast majority of its historical territory. Luxembourg never had colonies and was not a colonial power when all its neighbors were.  As for industrialization Luxembourg was a leader due to its close proximity to England and the Netherlands (first continental European power to industrialize). There is one fortune 500 corporations in Luxembourg ArcelorMittal, a metal company ranked as the 123rd in the world for Fortune 500s.  The main sources of production are finance, steel and tourism. Steel is the historical main source of economic growth in Luxembourg, yet the finance/banking sector is now the largest. A small agricultural sector is present as well. Additionally, the nation has close economic ties to the majority Europe through the EU, most importantly the two other Benelux nations of Belgium and the Netherlands. Finally the government of Luxembourg is representative democracy with a constitutional monarch. It is the only grand duchy left in the world. The head of state is the grand duke Henri Grand Duke of Luxembourg. All of these facts means that sustainability should be achievable in Luxembourg. However, one drawback may be that despite its small size and considerable wealth Luxembourg has the fifth highest debt in the world and the highest debt per capita at over $3.5 million and also the highest debt per GDP.  This large debt for such small nation could cause some barriers to the sustainable economic growth that could occur in the future.

Demographics and Economic

For the third chapter of The Age of Sustainable Development by Sachs, Sachs discusses how and why some regions and nations of the world have become developed over others. There are some factors that just fell into place which allowed Great Britain to be the first nation to experience the Industrial Revolution. Through the ripple effect other nations across the globe began to become advanced enough to have economic advantages in a higher degree. The country I am researching is Luxembourg, which is located in the "lowlands" of western Europe. That means that Luxembourg had felt the ripple effect much earlier than other nations in the world. This is why Luxembourg is a highly advanced nation in comparison to the global standard. However, when looking at the GDP of the nation it is not as high as one would think for a developed nation. That is because the nation is extremely small, smaller than the State of Rhode Island. That means the raw materials needed to produce a large economy are also not in great supply within the boundaries of the state.The true testament to the the development of Luxembourg is its GDP per capita which is one of the highest in the world. It seems to go against some of Sachs points of how the richest nation reached their position. First off Luxembourg is landlocked, which limits its ability to interact with international trade through the sea. Second it is small and never had a colonial empire to fuel its resource needs. However, Luxembourg has always been in favor of economic unions to help mitigate their lack of resources and landlocked position, and being close to other well developed nations can allow Luxembourg easier access to advanced technologies. Below are some of Luxembourg states in the fields of economics and demographics.  Also this link will bring you to gap minder chart that shows Agriculture as the % of GDP vs the GDP per capita. It seems as percent of agriculture in GDP drops the GDP per capita rises. Since the percent of agriculture in Luxembourg has always been low, the nation has had a relatively high GDP per capita over the years.

Table 1.  Common Demographic and Economic Development Indicators: Recent Data for Luxembourg
Indicator:	Value:	Year:	Source:
GDP	57.794 billion ($US)	2015	World Bank
GDP per capita	101,449.968 ($US)	2015	World Bank
HDI	.892	2014	UNDP
Life Expectancy	82.207 years	2014	World Bank
Unemployment	6.1%	2009	World Bank
Infant Mortality (infant deaths per 1,000)	1.5	2015	World Bank
Crude Death Rate (deaths per 1,000)	6.9	2014	World Bank
Fertility Rate (total fertility rate)	1.55	2014	World Bank
Urban Population (% of total population)	90.16%	2015	World Bank
Urban Growth (urban population growth)	2.693	2015	World Bank
Total Population	569,676	2015	World Bank
CO2 emission (metric tons per capita)	20.898   (high)	2011	World Bank