Social exclusion of immigrants in Belgium

D’hondt JasmienStrepparola Alessandro

Tytgat Sonny

Immigration history in BelgiumBefore 1920 the immigration to Belgium was

mainly from neighboring countries (32% from France, 22% from Germany and 28% from the Netherlands).

After World War II, Belgium needed a lot of foreign workers to rebuild and restart our economy. Therefore a lot of Italian people came to Belgium to work here. After a mining disaster in 1956 the Italian government advised against working in Belgium.

Immigration history in BelgiumDuring the economic boom from 1962-1966,

there were a lot of jobs available in Belgium and the government started looking to find extra labor forces in other countries. They found the extra man power in Morocco and Turkey.

After 1967 the immigration of people from Turkey, Italy, Greece and Spain declined but the immigration of Moroccans remained stable.

Immigration demographicsItalian: 169 027peopleFrench: 130 568 peopleDutch: 123 454 peopleMoroccan: 79 867 peopleSpanish: 42 712 peopleTurkish: 39 954 people

Population of immigrants by nationality

Assylum applications

Governmental InitiativesIn 2003 the Belgian government has

converted two European directives that have strengthened the Belgian legal arsenal in terms of discrimination.

Directive on equal treatment in employment and occupation

Directive for the implementation of equal treatment between persons irrespective of their race or ethical origin.

Governmental InitiativesIn 2004 the Belgian government has started

an action plan against racism. This decision was taken after the results of the regional elections had shown that the extreme right political parties had a large amount of votes. The action plan wants to reinforce the effectiveness of the antiracism law by giving sanctions against those who feed racism on the internet.

Governmental InitiativesWhen people immigrate to Belgium, they

need to follow an integration course. The course exists out of 3 main topics:

Basic course of DutchIntroduction to the Flemish and Belgian

societyAssistance in finding work or studies and the

variety of culture and leisure

Belgian Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism.

The organization offers services concerning different topics:

Diversity and discriminationRoots of discriminationMigrationHuman trafficPovertyVN-stipulation handicap