Multilingual practices of university students and changing forms of multilingualism in Luxembourg

With its own national language, Luxembourgish, and three languages of administration, French, German and Luxembourgish, Luxembourg has long been a very multilingual country. The nature of this multilingualism is now changing, due to the rising proportion of migrants in the country, who now make up 43% of the resident population. The changing demographic profile of Luxembourg is reflected in a diversification of language practices within this already highly multilingual context. This article focuses on one group of people who exemplify these changes, 24 students of diverse national and language backgrounds at the University of Luxembourg. Using data from a language diaries exercise conducted as part of an introductory course on multilingualism, we examine the reported multilingual practices of the students and consider what these language practices reveal about traditional and newer forms of multilingualism in Luxembourg.