“Breaking the Language Barrier in Belgium: Bridging the Gap between Flemish and Walloon Job Seekers”

2023-05-11 09:11:03

In 2022, the VDAB (Flemish employment service, editor’s note) sent 117,000 vacancies to Forem. Despite the high unemployment rate in Wallonia, only… 51 (!) job seekers were invited to apply for these positions, reports the daily De Tijd.

In Belgium, there is practically no extended cooperation between the various operators on the labor market on either side of the linguistic border.

As proof: last year, out of the 117,000 job offers sent by the VDAB to its Walloon counterpart forem, which only invited… 51 job seekers to apply for one of these jobs. This is what emerges from the figures requested by Flemish MP Tom Ogena (Open VLD). A missed opportunity, according to him, especially given the current shortage.

“To fill the many vacancies, we turn to immigrant labor from abroad. But it would be better to direct job seekers from Wallonia and Brussels to our vacancies. This is far from being the case today”, he laments.

“It has nothing to do with language”

Tom Ongena points to the almost non-existent interregional activation and calls for agreements for follow-up and possible sanctions. How can this reluctance of Walloon job seekers to cross the linguistic border be explained?

“This is partly explained by the advantageous border status, it has nothing to do with the language. This shows the need for a cooperation agreement between Wallonia and Flanders”, explains Mr Ongena. “Today, job offers are passed on and an invitation to apply follows in some cases. On the other hand, we are not told if the job seeker actually applied for the job. If the job seeker does not apply, there is no negative consequence behind”, he continues.

Thanks to a cooperation agreement between the VDAB and the Brussels employment agency Actiris, the figures for the capital region are slightly better. Of the 14,000 job offers sent by the VDAB, Actiris invited 251 job seekers to apply.

Tom Ongen
@tomongena

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