Article 89 of this law enabled people with a Luxembourgish ancestor alive on January 1st, 1900 to reclaim Luxembourg citizenship. This study is based on those applicants.

On December 31, 2018, eligibility under Article 89 came to an end, although other paths to Luxembourgish nationality through ancestry remain.

From 2008-2020, over 2,507 United States citizens over 18 years old recovered Luxembourg nationality under Article 89.

Moreover, the above figure is a big understatement of the total number of Americans who will get Luxembourgish dual citizenship.

Based on our study’s data and the Ministry’s statistics, we expect a total of 6,126** future dual citizens under Article 89 alone.

Luxembourg has a population of 626,100. The new American-Luxembourgers would already represent 0.6% of Luxembourg’s population. By adding the individuals who still need to travel and their children, the American-Luxembourgers will easily surpass equivalent to 1% of Luxembourg’s population.

**The true number is much higher. This figure excludes Article 23 applicants (˜150 already citizens, 365 estimated as applied but not completed), naturalizations (~200 already citizens), and US-born individuals who never legally lost Luxembourg nationality (“Article 7”, 3,000-5,000 people). These figures again do not include minor children who also became citizens.

Who Were the Ancestors from Luxembourg?

Under Article 89, Qualifying Luxembourg Ancestors needed to be alive and have Luxembourgish citizenship on January 1st, 1900.

An Immigration Story

As we can see, most Luxembourg Ancestors who immigrated to the USA were born in the 1850s and 1860s. Furthermore, most of these immigrants were male.

The Luxembourg Ancestors’ Lives in the USA

Most ancestors who immigrated to the USA headed for the Midwest. Although the Midwest was still the “frontier”, most of them actually lived long lives.

American-Luxembourgers: About the Families

Just over half of the applicants are married. While the same percentage don’t have children, nearly a third of applicants have two or more children. Most, but not all, of those children are also applying.

American-Luxembourgers: Who Are The Applicants?

A lot of the applicants are three to four generations removed from their Luxembourg ancestor. The largest concentration of applicants still lives in the Northern Midwest.

As part of our research, we studied our applicants’ mobility. How much had these individuals moved around during their lifetime? While the majority were born in the same state where their ancestor passed away, most do not live in that state today. Above all, this is a rather mobile population.

Education & Career