Immigration 1% of people in Belgium are illegal workers

[Maciamo]

Expatica : Just 1,669 illegal workers held in Belgium last year

BRUSSELS ?\ The social inspection services arrested just 1,669 illegal immigrants in the workplace last year, a surprisingly small amount compared with the estimated number of illegal workers in Belgium.

Studies indicate a large number of illegal immigrants are working in Belgium. The building industry association Bouwunie has estimated there were 80,000 to 135,000 illegal workers in Belgium in 2001.
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Police reports are not included because they only register illegal residence, not what the illegal immigrant was doing at the time of their arrest.
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This means that about 1% of Belgium's population of 10 million is made of illegal workers. Given the high rate of unemployment among immigrants, and especially illegal ones, it is likely that the total number of illegal immigrants is much higher.

This comes in sharp contrast to the situation in Japan, where all registered foreigners (including those overstaying their visas) amount to just a bit more of 1% of the population. In other words, the percentage of illegal foreign residents may be higher in Belgium than the number of total foreign residents in Japan. About 10% of the people living in Belgium are of foreign origins. According to Wikipedia in French 34.1% of the population of Brussels is made of foreigners (28.4%) or naturalised immigrants (5.7%).

I was surprised that there is no need for a visa at all for my wife in Belgium. She just has to register at the town hall, like any Belgian citizen, although she is Japanese. Contrarily to Japan, foreigners in Belgium do not have to carry a resident card, although Belgian citizens must carry their ID card at all time.

I was even more surprised when I noticed that half of the time, when I arrive at Brussels Airport, there is no passport or customs check at all - for everyone ! No wonder Belgium has been called a paradise for illegal immigrants !

 

[Maciamo]

The response was swift for once (or maybe the coicidental result of years of preparations ?) : Expatica : Work permit abuse leads to tighter foreign labour laws

All foreign workers who move to Belgium will be obligated in future to register with the regional labour market authority.

The decision comes amid revelations large ICT firms frequently abuse the work permit system to import cheap labour from India with a tourist visa (Cap Gemini) or employ skilled expats to do simple tasks (Hewlett Packard).
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The obligation for expat workers to register will also be extended to
foreigners who start a traineeship or undergo studies in Belgium. The regulation might also apply to business professionals who only visit Belgium for a few days.

Currently, the latter group does not need to register with a government authority, but can enter the country on a tourist or business visa.
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That's good, but 1) I am amazed that up to now foreign workers did not have to register somewhere, and 2) I disagree with the idea of business people on a short visit having to register if they stay less than, say 3 months. This might drive business people away. I suppose this only concerns non-EU visitors anyway.

Workers employed in a university or company to perform research and earn a minimum wage of EUR 42,000 per year will no longer need a work permit in future.

Good initiative to increase research, but why favour them while adding restriction on business visitors ?

 

[Maciamo]

Last June, the British government revealed that there could be between 310,000 and 570,000 illegal immigrants in the UK. (BBC News : Illegal immigrant figure revealed).

In other words, from 0.5% to 0.95% of Britain's population of 60 million are illegal immigrants. The figures above showed that from 0.78% to 1.3% of Belgium population of 10.3 million is made of illegal workers (the figure for illegal immigrants is certainly several fold higher, as in legal immigrant families children and many women already do not work, and we can only hope that just a small percentage of illegal immigrants were able to find work).

I find it quite simply incredible that Belgium has proportionally more illegal workers than Britain's total illegal immigrants. This is all the more surprising that the UK is often seen as the most sought-after destination in Europe for immigrants (probably because of the language, and greater tolerance to multi-culturalism).

I believe that Belgium's high number of illegal immigrants and workers is due to the lenient regulations, lack of compulsory registration, lack of ID cards for foreigners (while nationals must carry theirs at all time), and lack of passport control at the airports.