Social isolation of expatriates in Luxembourg: causes, impacts and solutions

Leaving everything to prioritise your professional career may not seem like an unreasonable decision but it brings with it its share of upheaval and can have a big impact on the person making that choice. And that starts with his or her mental health.

With 50% of its residents foreigners and a labour market in which only a quarter of workers are Luxembourgish nationals, the Grand Duchy is a breeding ground for social isolation. The problem particularly affects expatriates, according to psychologist Samantha Rizzi.

“Social isolation is one of the reasons why patients come to see me, particularly foreigners and neurodivergent people,” she said. “These people already have social difficulties and anxiety and if on top of that they come from a different culture and don’t understand the language, this will exacerbate the social isolation.”

Social networks and superficial relationships

Although the phenomenon already existed, it has become more widespread in recent years, particularly as a result of the pandemic.

“The pandemic played a big role in these problems because, by staying at home, some people lost the habit of socialising, so isolation increased even more,” Rizzi said.

Egon Daveux, a psychologist who has been practising in Luxembourg for 25 years, also points out that social isolation is “an extremely frequent reason for consultation that has increased since the pandemic”. However, the psychotherapist who works with mental health organisation, Ligue Santé Mentale, stresses this problem “is not linked to the fact that people are foreigners”.

Instead, he points to social networks and the superficiality of relationships.

“People have never been as lonely as they have been since the development of social networks,” he said. “People don’t have much space where they can talk to each other, express themselves in depth. And I don’t get the impression that people from other countries face this problem any more than those who are more integrated. In the end, I don’t know whether social isolation is more acute here than elsewhere.”

More or less vulnerable profiles

However, there is one profile of expatriates who are particularly vulnerable to this problem: young adults who have recently arrived for professional reasons.

“School is the place where you make all your acquaintances and build solid relationships,” said Daveux. “Young adults who arrive alone to work in Luxembourg don’t have that experience.”

Also read:‘I struggle to make friends in Luxembourg and feel terribly lonely’

Rizzi shares this view and says that people with anxiety and depression are also more vulnerable.

“When you’re away from your family, you feel lonelier,” she said. “But it also depends on the family ties you had at the start. Those who work in very demanding sectors will also have less time and fewer cognitive resources to look after their social network, and are therefore more at risk.”

Another aggravating factor is the non-recognition of qualifications, said Daveux.

“Some people go from the socio-cultural level of engineer to handyman, from accountant to cleaning lady, because their qualifications are not recognised in Luxembourg. This can create an additional factor of exclusion”.

However, this does not mean that people who choose to immigrate as a family are entirely protected from this problem. “Sometimes, parents can also feel this isolation because they find it harder to learn the language and integrate than their children who attend school,” he added.

Asking for help is sometimes taboo

For workers faced with such problems there is a real paradox between professional success and the discomfort associated with isolation.

“These people experience a cognitive dissonance between the external values and social well-being they project and the psychological discomfort they feel. They may feel like an impostor, ashamed of their misfortune,” said Rizzi.

Samantha Rizzi is a psychologist specialising in the diagnosis and follow-up of neurodivergent people © Photo credit: D.R.

According to Daveux, this paradox has been particularly felt within the Portuguese community with the “myth of return” – the idea that after a few years of hard work in Luxembourg, workers will return to their country of origin.

“If you don’t decide to integrate, you always live with this suffering,” he added. “In this case, it has more to do with the person, their temperament. Some people will integrate and accept Luxembourg as a host country while others will have difficulties.”

The ability to overcome these difficulties and, above all, to ask for help will sometimes depend on the origin of the people suffering from this isolation.

“In some cultures, it’s very difficult to ask for psychological help because it’s perceived as shameful so it delays treatment. Mental health is still a taboo subject in some societies even though there has been an evolution in recent years”, the psychologist said.

Sleep disorders, anxiety, depression…

In practical terms, this isolation manifests itself in a number of symptoms.

“In general, sleep disorders are the first symptoms because ruminations are extremely frequent, accompanied by a drop in self-esteem”, explained Daveux. These questions can be accompanied by anxiety about going out and can even lead to agoraphobia – an anxiety disorder causing the person to feel unsafe or trapped in a certain place.

“Social isolation is a very, very important risk factor for all mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression,” Rizzi said. More generally, the psychologist warns that any change in behaviour can alert those around you to the difficulties a person may be experiencing.

“If you notice a drastic change, it’s always a warning sign. A calm person who becomes irritable, an active person who becomes passive or a talkative person who becomes silent.”

According to Egon Daveux, the very structure of the Luxembourg labour market is one of the main obstacles to the creation of social ties in Luxembourg.

“The fact that there is this aspect of the commute, which is sometimes long, for both cross-border commuters and residents, means that there is less opportunity to see each other. Another thing that comes up a lot is that groups of friends are formed very early in life and it’s difficult to fit into a group that’s already formed.”

Tips for integrating

What about the language barrier? For the psychologist, as long as you speak one of the country’s three languages, there is no particular barrier.

But Samantha Rizzi points out a limitation: “The fact that you always have to switch between different languages can exhaust you cognitively. You can even feel excluded in group conversations.”

To avoid such a scenario, the two therapists have more than one tip for newcomers.

“To reduce such cognitive fatigue but also the anxiety of having to talk to new people and create new relationships, there’s nothing like doing something you enjoy in a group,” Rizzi recommended. The idea is not to form an intense relationship straight away but to have a regularity activity such as through a sports or creative hobbies in order to build a bond.

Daveux recommends expats take conversation classes. “I think one of the first things to do is to take language classes. They’re available in all the communes and there’s a very wide range so it’s a great way of integrating.”

But beware of trying to learn all three languages at once, warns the professional. “You run the risk of getting lost and ending up not being able to integrate into any of the languages. That would give the impression that you weren’t making any progress.”

(This article was originally published by Virgule.lu. Machine translated, with editing and adaptation by Heledd Pritchard.)