Brussels: Europe and the Arabs

Four out of ten unemployed Belgians are of non-EU origin, and this immigration policy is economically unsustainable. This is the message of a statement issued by the far-right Belgian party Vlaams Belang. The statement, a copy of which we received, adds:
Non-EU nationals constitute at least 38.2% of the unemployed aged 20 to 64 in Belgium, despite this group representing only 19.2% of the working-age population. MP Kurt Monz (Vlaams Belang) describes the figures presented by labor economist Stein Baert as "a new, realistic revision of Belgian immigration policy." He adds: "Anyone who advocates for mass immigration on the grounds of needing additional labor must explain these figures. Non-EU immigrants represent twice their proportion of the population."

According to Monz, these figures reveal a structural problem that Vlaams Belang has long raised. People from outside the European Union make up 19.2% of the population aged 20 to 64, but they represent 38.2% of the total unemployed in this age group. In other words, nearly four out of every ten unemployed people are of non-EU migration origin.

"For years, we've been told that mass immigration is necessary to solve our labor shortage," says Munz. "But the reality is that a large portion of immigration from outside Europe doesn't improve employment rates; it puts additional pressure on the social security system." Therefore, Vlaams Belang believes a radical policy change is necessary. The party seeks to significantly reduce the influx of immigrants from outside Europe while simultaneously focusing on empowering existing residents.

"Immigration should serve the interests of our society, not the other way around," he adds.

"We don't need a constant influx of new immigrants only to discover later that integration has failed in the labor market," the MP continues. "We must first take advantage of the enormous potential of the existing workforce: 600,000 inactive, qualified workers who can't find jobs." "Therefore, immigration must once again serve the interests of our society, not the other way around." According to Muñoz, these figures also serve as a warning about the sustainability of social security. "No social system can remain viable unless a sufficient number of people contribute to it. An immigration model in which one group represents twice the unemployment rate compared to the population is neither socially nor economically sustainable. The limits of this model have long been exceeded."

Belgium is home to a significant number of immigrants from various nationalities, particularly from Arab and African countries, including Morocco, Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Congo, and others. It's worth noting that some political parties and media outlets sometimes focus on the connection between foreigners and crime, while occasionally overlooking the achievements and successes of foreigners or people of foreign origin in Belgium across various fields, including sports, medicine, engineering, politics, law, social work, and more. Belgium's current population is approximately 12 million, of whom over 2 million are foreign nationals, representing roughly 20% of the total population.