2023-08-10 04:48:00
By announcing last week that Flanders would add training in shortage occupations to its integration path for unskilled newcomers, the Flemish Minister for Integration Bart Somers (Open VLD) revived a debate that combines two elements highly sensitive: the community and immigration. This decision also further reinforced the differences that exist between the integration paths in force in each of the country’s communities.
This is because, as soon as the first measures were put in place to promote the integration of foreigners newly settled in Belgium, each region progressed at its own pace. Flanders was thus the first to create its compulsory course with, from 2003, the establishment of “inburgering” for certain categories of people settled on Flemish soil. This course should help people arriving in Belgium in their socio-professional integration. To be affected by the compulsory nature, you must be of legal age, reside in a Flemish or Brussels municipality and have a residence permit for more than three months.
Half of volunteers
Three years later, other groups were affected by the compulsory nature, such as recognized refugees and Belgians born abroad and of whom at least one parent was born abroad and who register for the first time in a municipality of the Flemish Region.
The program is then divided into three training courses: Dutch lessons, social orientation and individual support. Over the years, the system will be constantly reinforced. Today, the inburgering provides, in addition to the three original aspects, a registration program with the VDAB, the Flemish employment office.
Since last year, the integration course has also been paid for. It takes a maximum of 180 euros for Dutch lessons. Ditto for the orientation course. In 2022, 20,754 newcomers have started an integration process in the north of the country. But this training can be spread over 24 months; it is therefore necessary to add the candidates who started it in 2020 and 2021. The figures communicated by the firm of Bart Somers indicate that 49% of the participants follow an integration course on a compulsory basis, and 51% on a voluntary basis.
In 4 cases out of 5, the newcomer who enters the Brussels French-speaking integration program does so on a voluntary basis
Gaps
For a long time, Flanders went it alone. It will indeed be necessary to wait until 2009 for Wallonia to mention the establishment of a structured integration process. It becomes compulsory in 2016. Again, the obligation only concerns newcomers. This program is also divided into three training courses: language courses, citizenship training and a socio-professional integration module.
But the device has many shortcomings. An evaluation report published by the Walloon Institute for Evaluation, Forecasting and Statistics (Iweps) concluded in 2019 that the integration course would only partially meet the needs of newcomers. The report also pinpointed the ignorance of the device, despite its mandatory nature in force.
The Court of Auditors did not say anything else in an audit published in 2022. The court had looked into the Walloon course three years earlier. In 2019, some 3,614 people followed the course, including 2,239 on a voluntary basis and 1,375 on a compulsory basis. The report highlighted many pitfalls in the organization of the course. Although most candidates completed the course within the 18-month period, the analysis showed that compliance with the obligation was not guaranteed. It pointed out, for example, that the identification procedure did not make it possible to ensure that the persons concerned by the obligation are systematically registered in the course. “The Court also notes that the information system underlying the monitoring of the system has weaknesses and shortcomings which weaken the operational management of the course and its management at the strategic level”, might we read there. In short: due to a lack of reliable data, it is impossible to properly assess the relevance of the system.
Particularity of Brussels
Four years following this first assessment, the situation does not seem to have improved. Recently, La Libre reported the cry of alarm launched by the actors of the integration sector in Wallonia to the Minister of Social Action, Christie Morreale (PS). The situation is such that they fear that they will no longer be able to ensure the integration process as it is today. And this while a reform had been announced by the Walloon government.
How the French-speaking left changed course on the path to integration in Brussels
In Brussels, on the French-speaking side, it took until July 2022 for the course to become compulsory for newcomers. It was well organized until then, but on a voluntary basis. A small particularity in Brussels: newcomers registered in one of the municipalities of the capital have the choice of following it in French and in Dutch.
Great disparities
The difference between the systems sometimes leads the actors in the reception sector to orient newcomers towards one or the other language system. “When I worked in the Brussels association, I told newcomers to go and complete their course at the BON (for Brussel Onthal which provides the Dutch-speaking integration course, Ed.), and not in the Bapa (welcome office for newcomers ) because the courses and support are much more advanced and more interesting,” explains this elected official in a large Brussels municipality, referring to teaching methods that are not well suited to the target audience.
In a few months, the Brussels integration course might well be transformed. Indeed, from January 2024, the integration of immigrants from Brussels will be the responsibility of Cocom, the joint body for French-speakers and Dutch-speakers. This transfer of skills might lead to the establishment of a common course. But the file is highly sensitive. Some already fear that Flanders will reduce funding if it was not listened to enough in the drafting of this common course in Brussels. In the meantime, there are still two distinct routes in the capital.
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