Among European countries, Belgian citizens account for one of the largest per capita shares of foreign Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq. Craig J. Willy writes on Belgian immigration and labour market policies in light of the threat posed by terrorism. He argues that Belgium could be doing substantially more to promote equal opportunities in employment and education, which would help improve the integration of migrants into Belgian society

Willy, Craig J.

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11/03/2015Belgium must do more to prevent its citizens from joiningIslamic Stateblogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2015/03/11/belgium-must-do-more-to-prevent-its-citizens-from-joining-islamic-state/Among European countries, Belgian citizens account for one of the largest per capita shares offoreign Islamic State ﬁghters in Syria and Iraq. Craig J. Willy writes on Belgian immigration andlabour market policies in light of the threat posed by terrorism. He argues that Belgium could bedoing substantially more to promote equal opportunities in employment and education, which wouldhelp improve the integration of migrants into Belgian society.The European Union, with its common market and currency, is a testament to Europeans’ ambitionof making war materially impossible in their once-violent continent. The EU’s buildings in Brusselsare meant to symbolise these hopes for peace and prosperity. But today, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks inParis, they, as well as various Jewish buildings, are guarded by Belgian soldiers armed with assault riﬂes andsubmachine guns. How did it come to this in the “Capital of Europe”?Islamist terrorism is thankfully still relatively rare in Belgium, notwithstanding the murder of four people at the JewishMuseum of Belgium in May 2014 and the deaths of two would-be jihadis returning from Syria in the recent shootoutin Verviers. But between 300 and 400 Belgian citizens are estimated to have gone to Syria to ﬁght for Islamic State.Little Belgium apparently provides more Islamic State ﬁghters per capita than any other Western European country.Half of them come from Brussels. For those returning to Belgium, NATO headquarters and the European institutionsprovide prestigious targets whose attack would easily produce international headlines.Perhaps not coincidentally, Belgium has been one of the most unsuccessful European countries at economicallyintegrating migrants from Islamic countries. According to the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Sustainable GovernanceIndicators (SGI), Belgium is one of the worst performing countries in terms of integrating migrants. Recent studiessuggest half of Turkish and Moroccan migrants live in poverty, while 30 per cent of migrant youth drop out of schoolwithout a degree. Belgium also has one of the worst gaps in educational performance between migrants and nativechildren, with almost no improvement between the ﬁrst and second generations.For migrants, the Belgian job market is often out of reachThis is a huge problem for migrants and their children trying to access the Belgian job market. As SGI’s Belgiumreport notes: “The Brussels capital region suﬀers from chronic unemployment due to a mismatch between availablejobs, which typically require highly qualiﬁed and bilingual workers, and available job seekers, who are largely(second or third-generation) immigrants with low education.” Good English and/or Dutch, in addition to French, isoften a must for good jobs in Belgium. Brussels has a staggering unemployment rate of 19.2 per cent, easily risingto double that among many immigrant neighbourhoods.Certainly, not all of those opting to ﬁght for Islamic State are poor and indeed there are many educated and famouslyrich ones. But many are indeed poor and, more generally, economic inequality between the Muslim and nativeBelgian communities may motivate a wider sense of injustice and alienation.In addition, second generation children are liable to feel lost between the post-Christian/secular, individualistic,feminist and gay-friendly culture of Belgium and that of their Islamic, family-based, patriarchal and at timeshomophobic cultures of origin. As Montasser AlDe’emeh, a researcher at the University of Antwerp, told theWashington Post on Belgian jihadis: “The Islamic State is giving them what the Belgian government can’t give them— identity, structure. They don’t feel Moroccan or Belgian. They don’t feel part of either society.”1/3Cultural integration is made more diﬃcult still because of the weakness of Belgian national identity, torn betweenFrench-speaking Walloons and Dutch-speaking Flemish people. Brussels, sitting uneasily between the two as amajority French-speaking city surrounded by the Flanders regions, is in fact a “majority-minority” area. NativeBelgians have become a small minority of about 30  per cent among Arab and Turkish Muslims, Congolese,European expats and other groups, often with little mixing.The issue of inequality among most non-European immigrants and their descendants will grow more pressing asnon-European-origin groups expand as a share of population in the coming decades on the back of continuedimmigration and low native fertility. Growing minority groups will likely become less satisﬁed with their relativelyunderprivileged position and use their increased numbers to pressure for political change.Belgium could do more to foster equal opportunities in employment and educationBut it is also clear that Belgium can do better on integration because it is a low performer even by Europeanstandards. More should be done to ensure equality of opportunity in employment and education. The country’s SGIreport notes recent actions have been taken to address these inequalities: “There is the political will to help residentforeigners and second or third generation immigrants acquire Belgian citizenship, by providing adults with easyaccess to inexpensive or free training (including language, civic education and so on).”But clearly these eﬀorts are still inadequate, with the report stating that: “the education system is ill-adapted to non-native language students who are concentrated in urban areas, as well as in schools with a high proportion of non-native students (insuﬃcient language training and native speaker mix). Labour market discrimination also remainshigh.”Belgium is a relatively high performer in terms of social equality and well-being. This has been achieved throughlargely punitive taxes and social charges on labour, making up an incredible 56 per cent of the cost of workersalaries (take-home pay is only 44 per cent of what the employer pays), one of the highest rates in the world, and ahigh degree of labour security. This system has, perhaps surprisingly, proven compatible with a relatively high levelof competitiveness, as Belgium is also one of the Eurozone’s better economic performers. Nonetheless, Belgium’shas clearly been a “two-tier” system beneﬁting “ins” (e.g. native Belgians) as against “outs” (migrants, young peoplein general).In addition, Belgium’s relatively egalitarian social system nonetheless could be improved in terms of equity, as thecountry’s notoriously complex tax system has numerous loopholes beneﬁting multinational corporations and thewealthy.Europe needs a “soul”Continued inequalities among growing minorities might feed ethnic resentments which have too often endedtragically in Europe and elsewhere. A small number of people from these communities, as well as a few nativeBelgian converts, might feel motivated to commit acts of senseless violence against these real and perceivedinjustices. This is despite the relatively high standards of living for almost everyone in the West, includingunderprivileged minorities.But the spiritless promises of relative poverty in a materialist and ‘over-sexualised’ post-Christian culture –McDonald’s, iPods and YouPorn – could be enough to turn a few energetic, frustrated and ambitious young men toﬁnd a short-lived meaning in religious struggle. Europe cannot be reduced to an economic area of movement andconsumption; it also needs a “soul”, something that can easily be drawn from the continent’s incredibly wealthycultural and spiritual heritage.Fortunately, the terrorists have thus far been very few, but numerous enough to put at risk the lives of Jewish citizensof Brussels, European civil servants and all ordinary people, including the Muslim community. Enough for soldiers to2/3patrol the streets of Europe’s would-be capital of peace. Addressing this challenge in the Twenty-First Centuryrequires asking tough questions and taking sustained actions.Please read our comments policy before commenting .Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of EUROPP – European Politics and Policy, norof the London School of Economics. Featured image credit: Anthony Abbot (CC-BY-SA-3.0)Shortened URL for this post: http://bit.ly/1Fb10Xp _________________________________About the authorCraig WillyCraig James Willy is an EU aﬀairs writer. He has written political analysis for the BertelsmannStiftung and media analysis for the European Commission. His French-English blog is availablehere.3/3

Belgium must do more to prevent its citizens from joining Islamic State

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