L’immigration subsaharienne en Belgique. Etat des lieux et tendances récentes.
(2012) , 24 pages
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- (en) This study provides a description of sub-Saharan immigration in Belgium, using multiple sources of quantitative data (registers, censuses, and data on residence permits). These sources are used to assess the size and evolution of sub-Saharan migrants in Belgium, and to describe some socio-demographic characteristics of this population. While not providing answers to important social, political or economic questions related to sub- Saharan migration in Belgium, this descriptive approach nevertheless helps understand African immigration and issues associated with it. This work shows that, like what is observed in Europe, the sub-Saharan migrant population of Belgium has grown steadily over the last twenty years. Despite this rapid growth, the sub-Saharan population remains small. With approximately 130 000 individuals, it represents barely 1% of the population of the Kingdom. The diversifi cation of origins of sub-Saharan migrants is another signifi cant change of the last decades. While the former colonies, particularly the DR Congo, remain the main origin countries of sub-Saharan migrants in Belgium, there is signifi cant growth in migrants from other countries such as Cameroon and Guinea. Data from censuses also show that sub-Saharan migrants have - on average - fairly high levels of education, although there are large differences depending on the origin of migrants. High levels of education, refl ecting the strong selectivity of migration in the countries of origin, contradict the classical picture of poor and uneducated African migrants. We also show in this work that the migrant population from sub-Saharan Africa is predominantly urban, localized mainly in the Brussels Capital Region and - to a lesser extent - in major cities of Wallonia and Flanders. Finally, this study uses recent data on residence permits to explore migration motives. While the patterns vary somewhat depending on the origin of migrants, the top three legal ways to obtain a residence permit are family reunifi cation, studies and the granting of international protection. In summary, this approach highlights major changes and characteristics of the sub-Saharan African population in Belgium; some results qualify or contradict conventional wisdom. Moreover, this work also highlights the diffi culties in describing the characteristics and evolutions of the sub-Saharan migration in Belgium, refl ecting the imperfections in the existing statistical system.
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Citations
Schoumaker, B., & Schoonvaere, Q. (2012). L’immigration subsaharienne en Belgique. Etat des lieux et tendances récentes. (Démographie et sociétés 3). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/61599