Achieving fair and sustainable growth in a small, highly open economy requires careful alignment of productivity, innovation and social balance. This workshop explores how cross-border mobility, talent attraction and labour migration influence Luxembourg’s growth model, with a particular focus on the role of skilled migration in promoting innovation, entrepreneurship and the adoption of AI technologies. The workshop also examines how housing costs and spatial constraints influence mobility and retention, as well as how the public sector can provide a stabilising refuge for native workers amid intensifying international competition.
Bringing together keynote speakers, leading scholars and stakeholders, the programme connects frontier research with pressing challenges: pressure on public finances, modest innovation performance, a tight housing market, and rising real estate wealth inequality. The workshop also considers how to sustain social cohesion in an increasingly diverse society. In line with the LISER Policy Lab’s mission, the workshop aims to translate academic innovation into evidence-based policy design.
Programme
Welcoming and introduction
- 9:00-9:30 Welcome coffee
- 9:30-9:40 Introduction by André Gröger (LISER)
Session 1: Cross-border mobility, talent attraction, and labour movement
Session chair: Michel Beine (University of Luxembourg)
- 09:40-10:25 Keynote: Michel Bierlaire (EPFL-Lausanne) — New methods for building synthetic populations
- 10:25-10:45 Silvia Peracchi (UCLouvain) — Wages, housing prices and labour mobility in the Greater Region
- 10:45-11:05 Joël Machado (LISER) — Attraction and retention of talent in Luxembourg
- 11:05-11:25 Philippe Gerber (LISER) — Reshaping congestion and mobility perspectives in the Greater Region
- 11:25-11:45 Veronique Van Acker (LISER) — Fare-free public transport reform in Luxembourg
- 11:45-11:55 Discussion (Q&A)
Lunch
Session 2: Challenges for fair and sustainable growth
Session chair: Frédéric Docquier (LISER)
- 13:15-14:00 Keynote: Alexander Yarkin (University College Dublin) — Cross-border inflows and natives’ labour market outcomes (joint with Giovanni Peri and Frédéric Docquier)
- 14:00-14:20 Bertrand Verheyden (LISER) — Newcomers’ aspirations to stay and integrate
- 14:20-14:40 Magdalena Gorczynska-Angiulli (LISER) — Housing Challenges and Future Perspectives
- 14:40-14:50 Discussion (Q&A)
Coffee Break
- 15:15-15:35 Cindy Lopes Bento (LISER and KULeuven) — Talent, science and innovation
- 15:35-15:55 Cesare Riillo (STATEC) — Immigration and entrepreneurship across Europe
- 15:55-16:15 Julio Garbers (LISER) — AI adoption and skills in the Greater Region
- 16:15-16:25 Discussion (Q&A)
Coffee Break
Session 3: Policy Roundtable
Panel moderator: Aleksandra Szymanska (LISER)
- 17:00-18:00 Panelists: Jean-François Müller (Ministry of Housing); Jacques Vandivinit (Fonds du Logement); Michel Bierlaire (EPFL); Pierre Weiss (MIFA); Valérie Massin (ArcelorMittal Luxembourg; FEDIL and Chamber of Commerce); Aline Muller (LISER)
This event is co-organised by the Crossing Borders and Migration Programme and the LISER Policy Lab, this workshop is partly funded by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) through the CORE grant CRHOUSINQ (Ref. C21/SC/16327273).
