Archive | 2021
1997-2017 : An assessment of two decades of immigration in Belgium
Abstract
Today more than yesterday, presenting clear immigration Figures is a necessity, but also a challenge. This article aims to unravel some key Figures to shed light on recent immigration and asylum flows in Belgium. In recent years, the number of entries of foreigners in Belgium has reached a historically high level. In 2017, nearly 140’000 international immigrants were registered. EU citizens accounted for more than half of these immigrants. Behind a migration trend that has been on the rise since the end of the 1990s, contrasting migratory patterns can be identified. Since 2014, for example, the French have been more numerous than Romanians among foreign im‐ migrants to Belgium and have been at the top of the list ever since. For more than fifty years Moroccan immigration has been one of the main immigration flows, but 1. Myria, Brussels, Belgium. 1997-2017: An assessment of two decades of immigration in Belgium 62 this long‐standing migration has recently been slowed down by family reunification, which has become more difficult. Registered Syrian immigration to Belgium has risen sharply, placing Syria in the top five countries of origin of immigrants in 2016 and 2017.