Belgium's Immigration Policy

Abstract

Belgium is one of the most multicultural and multiracial countries of the European Union. Today, the immigrant-origin populationI represents about 12 percent of the total population (about 10 million people). Contrary to some neighboring states, EU citizens2 account for more than 60 percent of the total immigrant-origin population. Among the non-EU, Moroccans (more than 120,000) and Turks (about 70,000) are the largest groups, but almost all the nationalities of the world are represented. The immigrant-origin population is unequally distributed in the territory. In the capital city, Brussels, it comprises more than 28.5 percent of the population, whereas in Flanders it does not reach 5 percent, and it is 10 percent in Wallonia. In 1974, the Council of Ministers made three important decisions. First, it officially stopped any new immigration of workers. Second, it took measures to control clandestine immigration. Third, it regularized a few thousand undocumented migrant workers. Since then and until very recently, the doctrine of zero-immigration has dominated the debates and policy initiatives in the field of immigration. Even though immigration to Belgium continued under different patterns (family reunions, free movement of EU citizens, foreign students, refugees and asylum seekers, illegal immigration) which contributed to the diversification of the Belgian population, there has never been a proactive policy of immigration based on the political acknowledgment that Belgium was indeed, de facto, a country of immigration. Stress has been put on means to reduce immigration as much as possible, to prevent migration, and to reverse it. Since 2000, a new debate has slowly been emerging. The impact of the report on replacement migration published by the Population Division of the UN has put the issue of a partial reopening of the borders in the media and on the political agenda. The Belgian corporate world views immigration of highly skilled workers as a partial solution to the labor market shortages. But the government is reluctant to envisage a more open approach to migration inflows. The logic of the markets and the logic of the state do not move in the same directions.