The gap in labour market participation between natives and people with an immigrant background is significant in Belgium, one of the largest in the OECD. In this Policy Brief, we present research1 that investigated one of the possible causes of this poor performance, and we propose three main policy recommendations. The research project studied whether Belgium’s complex federal state structure, and the subsequent division of responsibilities and lack of intergovernmental cooperation helps to explain this poor performance. The study concluded that governance complexity does not appear to be a main cause for Belgium’s poor results. However, more policy coordination would improve policy efficiency.
Issue 2015/2 • March 2015
can be found. The research also investigated what opportunities could arise from the sixth Belgian state reform to promote labour market participation of people with an immigrant background.
After presentin

Adam, Ilke

Van Dijk, Mathijs

The gap in labour market participation between natives and people with an immigrant background is significant in Belgium, one of the largest in the OECD. In this Policy Brief, we present research1 that investigated one of the possible causes of this poor performance, and we propose three main policy recommendations. The research project studied whether Belgium’s complex federal state structure, and the subsequent division of responsibilities and lack of intergovernmental cooperation helps to explain this poor performance. The study concluded that governance complexity does not appear to be a main cause for Belgium’s poor results. However, more policy coordination would improve policy efficiency

Archive of European Integration

æPolicy  briefby Ilke Adam and Mathijs Van DijkIntroductionInternational and national indicators paint an unfavourable picture of Belgium’s performance when it comes to the labour market par-ticipation of people with an immigration background (OECD 2008; 2012; FOD WASO and CGKR 2013). The gap between the labour market participation of natives and immigrants is large, much larg-er than the OECD average. Belgium has received severe criticism for this situation over the past years from both from the OECD and the European Union. This criticism was repeated in July 2014 in the Eu-ropean Council Recommendation on the 2014 Stability Programme of Belgium. This Policy Brief outlines research that was conducted at the Insti-tute for European Studies of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel under the auspices of the King Baudouin Foundation. The study inquires into one possible cause of Belgium’s poor performance with regard to labour market participation of immigrants. Existing research mostly points to immigrant characteristics and certain features in relation to the receiving society (discrimination, integration policies, and more structural factors). The research presented here is unique as it goes in-depth into structural factors. It asks whether Belgium’s complex federal state structure (and subsequent division of respon-sibilities and lack of intergovernmental cooperation) has a bearing on the poor results of Belgium in this field. As part of the research, Belgium’s division of governmental responsibilities and institution-al cooperation are compared with the situation in other (mostly mul-tinational) federal and decentralized states: Spain and Catalonia, Canada and Quebec, the United Kingdom in relation to Scotland and finally Germany and its sub-state units, the Länder. Besides the central research question, the research also studies how in-tergovernmental and inter-departmental cooperation is organised, and where bottlenecks and best practices in cooperative practices Immigrant labour market participation in Belgium - high time to mainstreamThe gap in labour market participation between natives and people with an immigrant background is significant in Belgium, one of the largest in the OECD. In this Policy Brief, we present research1 that investigated one of the possible causes of this poor performance, and we propose three main policy recommendations. The research project studied whether Belgium’s complex federal state structure, and the subsequent division of responsibilities and lack of intergovernmental cooperation helps to explain this poor performance. The study concluded that governance complexity does not appear to be a main cause for Belgium’s poor results. However, more policy coordination would improve policy efficiency. Issue 2015/2 • March 2015can be found. The research also investigated what opportunities could arise from the sixth Belgian state reform to promote labour market participation of people with an immigrant background. After presenting the main research findings, this Policy Brief will emphasize three main policy recommendations resulting from the study. Main research findingsThe research finds that the complexity of the division of policy authority in Belgium is not a main cause of the country’s poor performance with regards to the labour market participation of immigrants. This does not mean, however, that intergovernmen-tal cooperation could not be improved. The research detected several challenges with regard to intergovernmental cooperation that could be addressed to foster policy efficiency. The two main reasons for concluding that the complex division of policy authority  and the nature of intergovernmental coopera-tion are not main causes of creating the gap in labour market participation are as follows. First, the division of  responsibilities in other federal or decentralized  states is possibly even more complex than that in Belgium, and yet they outperform Belgium by sustaining a smaller labour market participation gap between immigrants and natives or no gap at all. Secondly, both federal and regional governments in Belgium already have substantial leverage to promote labour market participation of immigrants without there being any actual need to cooperate between the different state levels. Counter-intuitively, our research shows that cooperation between the policy domains of labour and in-tegration within the same government (federal or regional, for example within the Flemish or Walloon region, or within the fed-eral government) is not necessarily smoother than intergovern-mental cooperation between the federal state, the regions and communities. Yet, this interdepartmental cooperation (within the same government) is not hindered at all by complex division of responsibilities. Mainstreaming immigrant integration at all government lev-els and in all relevant policy departmentsMainstreaming immigrant integration in the policy fields of la-bour and education is essential for achieving better labour market participation. Inspired by the definition of gender main-streaming2, mainstreaming immigrant integration can be de-fined as the process of assessing the implications for people with an immigrant background of all planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. It also involves cooperation between policy areas to foster jointly equal participation independent of ethnic origin. The complexity of the Belgian federal governance structure cannot serve as an excuse for cooperation between departments at the same level of governance. The European common basic principles for im-migrant integration  clearly state that integration3 cannot just be a preoccupation of integration  (or home affairs) ministers alone, but must be thought about and acted upon in all departments and at all levels of government. Much can be learned from gender mainstreaming in Belgium, as well as from disability mainstreaming, both of which are legal duties for policy makers . These forms of mainstreaming are im-plemented by all policy authorities at all levels, while they are ab-sent at most policy levels for immigrant integration. Mainstream-ing immigrant integration is non-existent at the federal level, and variance can be found at the regional level. Mainstreaming immigrant integration is present in Flanders, but absent in the Federation Wallonia-Brussels, the Walloon and the Brussels re-gion. These authorities do not or barely give attention to the specific difficulties of people of immigrant origin in their general labour and education policies, neither do they institutionalize co-operation on this issue between the relevant policy departments. In Flanders, immigrant integration is lightly mainstreamed in all relevant policy departments. Although interdepartmental coop-eration exists, it can be improved in numerous ways.For over a decade, Walloon integration centres (centres régionaux d’intégration) have called for a mainstreamed integration policy. Even today, everything concerning immigrant participation is re-ferred to the ‘integration minister or department’ (minister for social affairs, ministre de l’action sociale). Yet integration policy should not remain limited to funding integration centres, some courses and limited local projects run by non-governmental or-ganisations. It must be ensured that education and labour mar-ket policies take into account the specific challenges with which people with an immigrant background are confronted (such as discrimination, the need for recognition of diplomas, limited or different professional networks). Within the Flemish government, there is an institutionalized form of integration mainstreaming as shown in the ‘Integrated Action Plan Integration Policy’ and the interdepartmental ‘Committee on Integration Policy.’ Our interviews with policy-makers reveal that there is an overall appreciation of the work of this commit-Policy   brief • n° 2015/2                 Policy   brief • n° 2015/2tee and the role of this and other action plans that span various departments of government. At the same time, things could still be improved. In the overall mainstreaming effort interviewees mentioned the unclear role of the committee and the mandate of its members as weak spots. Another recurrent critique con-cerns the lack of coordination outside the interdepartmental commission, when ministers of education, labour or integration take new initiatives that impact the labour market participation of people with an immigrant background. Mainstream immigrant integration in the intergovernmental relations on employment policiesOur research shows that the intergovernmental relations5  be-tween the federal and regional authorities are far more intense on general employment than on immigrant integration policies. Moreover, these intergovernmental negotiations on employment never deal with the specific issue of the labour market position of people with an immigrant background. In order to reduce this gap, the specifics of the labour market position of people with an immigrant background must be a structural part of federal-regional and interregional negotiations. This can be achieved by, amongst other things, an employment conference at the start of each legislature with employers, unions, representatives of underrepresented groups and all government institutions in-volved in labour market policies (federal government, regions and communities). This conference then needs to establish joint objectives on labour market policies, with particular attention to improving the position of all currently underrepresented groups in the labour market - including, but not limited to, people with an immigration background. The employment gap is different for men and women with an immigrant background as well as with respect to the level of formal education:  women with an immigrant background face a gap that is double that of men and, counterintuitively, the gap is overall wider for highly educated migrants than for the lowly skilled (OECD, 2012). This means that specific objectives for fur-thering the employment of men and women with an immigrant background are needed by keeping a gender and a qualification dimension at the heart of the process. Ethno-stratification6, the overrepresentation of people of immigrant descent in certain sectors of the labour market, and “brain loss” through overquali-fied people doing low skilled jobs equally need a defined pres-ence in the intergovernmental cooperation efforts.For this and other target groups, each Belgian government level will need to detail how, within its area of responsibility, it can contribute to the realization of the joint objectives. Some objec-tives will be able to be achieved without, and others with in-tergovernmental cooperation. The way in which cooperation is organised needs to be thoroughly thought through. With this in mind, the conference will need to be prepared, through high level working groups that can adequately prepare the decision-making, to set clear definitions for what progress means and in what timeframe. The follow-up to the conference can be achieved through regular meetings in which progress is monitored by a monitoring body. The results of such an employment conference can feed into the National Reform Plan that Belgium submits annually to the Euro-pean Commission. By having a joint exercise involving different levels of government, the quality of the Plan in relation to em-ployment can be improved. A joint exercise directly offers the advantage of mitigating the recurrent critique of the European Commission to Belgium that it submits a National Reform Plan that is in essence a collated collection of regional plans without any overall coherence.  The further regionalisation of several em-ployment policy responsibilities following the 6th Belgian state reform makes these cooperative efforts even more necessary. Use the new regional ‘target group policies’ to reduce the employment gap between immigrants and nativesUntil the implementation of the 6th state reform the ‘target group policies’ for underrepresented groups (the so-called ‘groups at risk’) in the labour market were a responsibility of the federal au-thorities. The 6th state reform has transferred these legislative and implementation policies to the regions. The target group policies mainly concern wage subsidies (or a reduction of social security contributions) for employers who hire people with a cer-tain profile (mainly low-qualified young people, the long-term un-employed and older workers). The effect of these ‘target group policies’ on the reduction of the employment gap for people with an immigrant background has never been evaluated. These policy tools often address the long-term unemployed, a category  Policy briefs are published by theInstitute for European StudiesJean Monnet Centre of Excellenceat the  Vrije Universiteit Brusselwww.ies.bePleinlaan 5B-1050 BrusselsT +32 2 614 80 01ies@vub.ac.bein which migrants and particularly women with an immigration background are under-represented. They might thus increase, instead of closing, the employment gap between immigrants and natives by unconsciously favouring people without a migration background. The regionalisation of these target group policies constitute a real opportunity to evaluate how future redesigned regional target group policies might contribute to the reduction of the employment gap between immigrants and natives. ConclusionsThe explanation of the far too large labour market participation gap in Belgium, between people with and without an immigrant background, is clearly multi-faceted. Despite the fact that the complex division of responsibilities cannot be considered as the main cause of this gap, there is still major scope for enhancing cooperative policy efforts to foster Belgium’s and the Belgian re-gions’ policy performance. First, immigrant integration should be mainstreamed in all relevant policy departments and at all policy levels. Mainstreaming immigrant integration includes pol-icy coordination at the same policy level, between the integra-tion/anti-discrimination, employment and/or education depart-ments.  Second, relevant policy makers should also integrate the specific issue of labour market participation of people with an immigrant background into the existing intergovernmental coor-dination on employment policies. Without that, the implications of policy measures and cooperative efforts might be counter-productive and fall short of the target of a more inclusive labour market. Our third and last recommendation draws the attention of policy makers to the unconscious bias of former federal target group policies for ‘groups at risk’ on the labour market. Such albeit unconscious bias has possibly widened the employment gap between immigrants and natives. It is now up to the Belgian regions, newly responsible for wage subsidies for employers, to use these tools to reduce unemployment of people with an im-migrant background in Belgium. Footnotes: 1Adam, I. & M. Van Dijk, Institutionele samenwerking ter bevordering van de ar-beidsparticipatie van personen met een migratieachtergrond . Research initiated and funded by the King Baudouin Foundation.  2Mainstreaming the gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system, ECOSOC July 1997. Chapter IV.3Council of the EU, Justice and Home Affairs Council, 2618th Meeting, 14615/04. Brus-sels, 19 November 2004.  4The law gender mainstreaming of January 12, 2007; UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by Belgium in 2009, see also Declaration of Belgium to UN Conference on the Convention of the Rights of People with Disabilities, 2012: 2 5Intergovernmental cooperation in Belgium is often organized through interministerial conferences and intercabinet working groups. 6The division of the labour market in ethnic layers, wherein people with non-Belgian and non-European roots are over-represented in the less valued employment sectors. References:FOD WASO/CGKR. 2013. Socio-economische Monitoring. Federale Overheidsdienst Werkgelegenheid, Arbeid en Sociaal Overleg en het Centrum voor gelijkheid van kansen en voor racismebestrijdingOECD. 2012. Settling In OECD Indicators of Immigrant Integration. Organisation  for Economic Co-operation and Development. OECD. 2008. Les immigrés et l.’emploi (Vol. 2) :l’intégration sur le marché du travail en Belgique, en France, aux Pays-Bas et au Portugal. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Policy   brief • n° 2015/2About the authorsllke Adam is research professor at the Institute for European Studies (IES)  at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and lecturer at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Ilke coordinates the Migration and Diversity research cluster at the IES and has published various works on immigration and integration policy.Mathijs van Dijk is a doctoral researcher at the Institute for European Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He obtained his Masters in Political Science from the University of Amsterdam and obtained working experience on migration and development topics with the United Nations Development Programme in Brussels. 

Immigrant labour market participation in Belgium - high time to mainstream.  IES Policy Brief Issue 2015/2 March 2015

Immigrant labour market participation in Belgium - high time to mainstream. IES Policy Brief 2015/2 • March 2015

æPolicy  brief
by Ilke Adam and Mathijs Van Dijk
Introduction
International and national indicators paint an unfavourable picture 
of Belgium’s performance when it comes to the labour market par-
ticipation of people with an immigration background (OECD 2008; 
2012; FOD WASO and CGKR 2013). The gap between the labour 
market participation of natives and immigrants is large, much larg-
er than the OECD average. Belgium has received severe criticism for 
this situation over the past years from both from the OECD and the 
European Union. This criticism was repeated in July 2014 in the Eu-
ropean Council Recommendation on the 2014 Stability Programme 
of Belgium. 
This Policy Brief outlines research that was conducted at the Insti-
tute for European Studies of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel under the 
auspices of the King Baudouin Foundation. The study inquires into 
one possible cause of Belgium’s poor performance with regard to 
labour market participation of immigrants. Existing research mostly 
points to immigrant characteristics and certain features in relation 
to the receiving society (discrimination, integration policies, and 
more structural factors). The research presented here is unique as 
it goes in-depth into structural factors. It asks whether Belgium’s 
complex federal state structure (and subsequent division of respon-
sibilities and lack of intergovernmental cooperation) has a bearing 
on the poor results of Belgium in this field. As part of the research, 
Belgium’s division of governmental responsibilities and institution-
al cooperation are compared with the situation in other (mostly mul-
tinational) federal and decentralized states: Spain and Catalonia, 
Canada and Quebec, the United Kingdom in relation to Scotland 
and finally Germany and its sub-state units, the Länder. Besides 
the central research question, the research also studies how in-
tergovernmental and inter-departmental cooperation is organised, 
and where bottlenecks and best practices in cooperative practices 
Immigrant labour market 
participation in Belgium - high time 
to mainstream
The gap in labour market participation between natives and people with an 
immigrant background is significant in 
Belgium, one of the largest in the OECD. In 
this Policy Brief, we present research1 that 
investigated one of the possible causes 
of this poor performance, and we propose 
three main policy recommendations. The 
research project studied whether Belgium’s 
complex federal state structure, and the 
subsequent division of responsibilities 
and lack of intergovernmental cooperation 
helps to explain this poor performance. The 
study concluded that governance complexity 
does not appear to be a main cause for 
Belgium’s poor results. However, more policy 
coordination would improve policy efficiency. 
Issue 2015/2 • March 2015
can be found. The research also investigated what opportunities 
could arise from the sixth Belgian state reform to promote labour 
market participation of people with an immigrant background. 
After presenting the main research findings, this Policy Brief will 
emphasize three main policy recommendations resulting from 
the study. 
Main research findings
The research finds that the complexity of the division of policy 
authority in Belgium is not a main cause of the country’s poor 
performance with regards to the labour market participation of 
immigrants. This does not mean, however, that intergovernmen-
tal cooperation could not be improved. The research detected 
several challenges with regard to intergovernmental cooperation 
that could be addressed to foster policy efficiency. 
The two main reasons for concluding that the complex division 
of policy authority  and the nature of intergovernmental coopera-
tion are not main causes of creating the gap in labour market 
participation are as follows. First, the division of  responsibilities 
in other federal or decentralized  states is possibly even more 
complex than that in Belgium, and yet they outperform Belgium 
by sustaining a smaller labour market participation gap between 
immigrants and natives or no gap at all. Secondly, both federal 
and regional governments in Belgium already have substantial 
leverage to promote labour market participation of immigrants 
without there being any actual need to cooperate between the 
different state levels. Counter-intuitively, our research shows 
that cooperation between the policy domains of labour and in-
tegration within the same government (federal or regional, for 
example within the Flemish or Walloon region, or within the fed-
eral government) is not necessarily smoother than intergovern-
mental cooperation between the federal state, the regions and 
communities. Yet, this interdepartmental cooperation (within the 
same government) is not hindered at all by complex division of 
responsibilities. 
Mainstreaming immigrant integration at all government lev-
els and in all relevant policy departments
Mainstreaming immigrant integration in the policy fields of la-
bour and education is essential for achieving better labour 
market participation. Inspired by the definition of gender main-
streaming2, mainstreaming immigrant integration can be de-
fined as the process of assessing the implications for people 
with an immigrant background of all planned action, including 
legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. 
It also involves cooperation between policy areas to foster jointly 
equal participation independent of ethnic origin. The complexity 
of the Belgian federal governance structure cannot serve as an 
excuse for cooperation between departments at the same level 
of governance. The European common basic principles for im-
migrant integration  clearly state that integration3 cannot just be 
a preoccupation of integration  (or home affairs) ministers alone, 
but must be thought about and acted upon in all departments 
and at all levels of government. 
Much can be learned from gender mainstreaming in Belgium, as 
well as from disability mainstreaming, both of which are legal 
duties for policy makers . These forms of mainstreaming are im-
plemented by all policy authorities at all levels, while they are ab-
sent at most policy levels for immigrant integration. Mainstream-
ing immigrant integration is non-existent at the federal level, 
and variance can be found at the regional level. Mainstreaming 
immigrant integration is present in Flanders, but absent in the 
Federation Wallonia-Brussels, the Walloon and the Brussels re-
gion. These authorities do not or barely give attention to the 
specific difficulties of people of immigrant origin in their general 
labour and education policies, neither do they institutionalize co-
operation on this issue between the relevant policy departments. 
In Flanders, immigrant integration is lightly mainstreamed in all 
relevant policy departments. Although interdepartmental coop-
eration exists, it can be improved in numerous ways.
For over a decade, Walloon integration centres (centres régionaux 
d’intégration) have called for a mainstreamed integration policy. 
Even today, everything concerning immigrant participation is re-
ferred to the ‘integration minister or department’ (minister for 
social affairs, ministre de l’action sociale). Yet integration policy 
should not remain limited to funding integration centres, some 
courses and limited local projects run by non-governmental or-
ganisations. It must be ensured that education and labour mar-
ket policies take into account the specific challenges with which 
people with an immigrant background are confronted (such as 
discrimination, the need for recognition of diplomas, limited or 
different professional networks). 
Within the Flemish government, there is an institutionalized form 
of integration mainstreaming as shown in the ‘Integrated Action 
Plan Integration Policy’ and the interdepartmental ‘Committee 
on Integration Policy.’ Our interviews with policy-makers reveal 
that there is an overall appreciation of the work of this commit-
Policy   brief • n° 2015/2
                 Policy   brief • n° 2015/2
tee and the role of this and other action plans that span various 
departments of government. At the same time, things could still 
be improved. In the overall mainstreaming effort interviewees 
mentioned the unclear role of the committee and the mandate 
of its members as weak spots. Another recurrent critique con-
cerns the lack of coordination outside the interdepartmental 
commission, when ministers of education, labour or integration 
take new initiatives that impact the labour market participation 
of people with an immigrant background. 
Mainstream immigrant integration in the intergovernmental 
relations on employment policies
Our research shows that the intergovernmental relations5  be-
tween the federal and regional authorities are far more intense 
on general employment than on immigrant integration policies. 
Moreover, these intergovernmental negotiations on employment 
never deal with the specific issue of the labour market position 
of people with an immigrant background. In order to reduce this 
gap, the specifics of the labour market position of people with 
an immigrant background must be a structural part of federal-
regional and interregional negotiations. This can be achieved by, 
amongst other things, an employment conference at the start 
of each legislature with employers, unions, representatives of 
underrepresented groups and all government institutions in-
volved in labour market policies (federal government, regions 
and communities). This conference then needs to establish joint 
objectives on labour market policies, with particular attention to 
improving the position of all currently underrepresented groups 
in the labour market - including, but not limited to, people with 
an immigration background. 
The employment gap is different for men and women with an 
immigrant background as well as with respect to the level of 
formal education:  women with an immigrant background face 
a gap that is double that of men and, counterintuitively, the gap 
is overall wider for highly educated migrants than for the lowly 
skilled (OECD, 2012). This means that specific objectives for fur-
thering the employment of men and women with an immigrant 
background are needed by keeping a gender and a qualification 
dimension at the heart of the process. Ethno-stratification6, the 
overrepresentation of people of immigrant descent in certain 
sectors of the labour market, and “brain loss” through overquali-
fied people doing low skilled jobs equally need a defined pres-
ence in the intergovernmental cooperation efforts.
For this and other target groups, each Belgian government level 
will need to detail how, within its area of responsibility, it can 
contribute to the realization of the joint objectives. Some objec-
tives will be able to be achieved without, and others with in-
tergovernmental cooperation. The way in which cooperation is 
organised needs to be thoroughly thought through. With this 
in mind, the conference will need to be prepared, through high 
level working groups that can adequately prepare the decision-
making, to set clear definitions for what progress means and in 
what timeframe. The follow-up to the conference can be achieved 
through regular meetings in which progress is monitored by a 
monitoring body. 
The results of such an employment conference can feed into the 
National Reform Plan that Belgium submits annually to the Euro-
pean Commission. By having a joint exercise involving different 
levels of government, the quality of the Plan in relation to em-
ployment can be improved. A joint exercise directly offers the 
advantage of mitigating the recurrent critique of the European 
Commission to Belgium that it submits a National Reform Plan 
that is in essence a collated collection of regional plans without 
any overall coherence.  The further regionalisation of several em-
ployment policy responsibilities following the 6th Belgian state 
reform makes these cooperative efforts even more necessary. 
Use the new regional ‘target group policies’ to reduce the 
employment gap between immigrants and natives
Until the implementation of the 6th state reform the ‘target group 
policies’ for underrepresented groups (the so-called ‘groups at 
risk’) in the labour market were a responsibility of the federal au-
thorities. The 6th state reform has transferred these legislative 
and implementation policies to the regions. The target group 
policies mainly concern wage subsidies (or a reduction of social 
security contributions) for employers who hire people with a cer-
tain profile (mainly low-qualified young people, the long-term un-
employed and older workers). The effect of these ‘target group 
policies’ on the reduction of the employment gap for people 
with an immigrant background has never been evaluated. These 
policy tools often address the long-term unemployed, a category 
 Policy briefs are published by the
Institute for European Studies
Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence
at the  Vrije Universiteit Brussel
www.ies.be
Pleinlaan 5
B-1050 Brussels
T +32 2 614 80 01
ies@vub.ac.be
in which migrants and particularly women with an immigration 
background are under-represented. They might thus increase, 
instead of closing, the employment gap between immigrants and 
natives by unconsciously favouring people without a migration 
background. The regionalisation of these target group policies 
constitute a real opportunity to evaluate how future redesigned 
regional target group policies might contribute to the reduction 
of the employment gap between immigrants and natives. 
Conclusions
The explanation of the far too large labour market participation 
gap in Belgium, between people with and without an immigrant 
background, is clearly multi-faceted. Despite the fact that the 
complex division of responsibilities cannot be considered as the 
main cause of this gap, there is still major scope for enhancing 
cooperative policy efforts to foster Belgium’s and the Belgian re-
gions’ policy performance. First, immigrant integration should 
be mainstreamed in all relevant policy departments and at all 
policy levels. Mainstreaming immigrant integration includes pol-
icy coordination at the same policy level, between the integra-
tion/anti-discrimination, employment and/or education depart-
ments.  Second, relevant policy makers should also integrate the 
specific issue of labour market participation of people with an 
immigrant background into the existing intergovernmental coor-
dination on employment policies. Without that, the implications 
of policy measures and cooperative efforts might be counter-
productive and fall short of the target of a more inclusive labour 
market. Our third and last recommendation draws the attention 
of policy makers to the unconscious bias of former federal target 
group policies for ‘groups at risk’ on the labour market. Such 
albeit unconscious bias has possibly widened the employment 
gap between immigrants and natives. It is now up to the Belgian 
regions, newly responsible for wage subsidies for employers, to 
use these tools to reduce unemployment of people with an im-
migrant background in Belgium. 
Footnotes: 
1Adam, I. & M. Van Dijk, Institutionele samenwerking ter bevordering van de ar-
beidsparticipatie van personen met een migratieachtergrond . Research initiated 
and funded by the King Baudouin Foundation. 
 2Mainstreaming the gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United 
Nations system, ECOSOC July 1997. Chapter IV.
3Council of the EU, Justice and Home Affairs Council, 2618th Meeting, 14615/04. Brus-
sels, 19 November 2004.  
4The law gender mainstreaming of January 12, 2007; UN Convention on the Rights 
of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by Belgium in 2009, see also Declaration of 
Belgium to UN Conference on the Convention of the Rights of People with Disabilities, 
2012: 2 
5Intergovernmental cooperation in Belgium is often organized through interministerial 
conferences and intercabinet working groups. 
6The division of the labour market in ethnic layers, wherein people with non-Belgian 
and non-European roots are over-represented in the less valued employment sectors. 
References:
FOD WASO/CGKR. 2013. Socio-economische Monitoring. Federale Overheidsdienst 
Werkgelegenheid, Arbeid en Sociaal Overleg en het Centrum voor gelijkheid van 
kansen en voor racismebestrijding
OECD. 2012. Settling In OECD Indicators of Immigrant Integration. Organisation  
for Economic Co-operation and Development. 
OECD. 2008. Les immigrés et l.’emploi (Vol. 2) :l’intégration sur le marché du travail 
en Belgique, en France, aux Pays-Bas et au Portugal. Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development. 
Policy   brief • n° 2015/2
About the authors
llke Adam is research professor at the 
Institute for European Studies (IES)  at 
the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) 
and lecturer at the Université Libre de 
Bruxelles. Ilke coordinates the Migration 
and Diversity research cluster at the IES 
and has published various works on 
immigration and integration policy.
Mathijs van Dijk is a doctoral researcher 
at the Institute for European Studies at 
Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He obtained 
his Masters in Political Science from the 
University of Amsterdam and obtained 
working experience on migration and 
development topics with the United Nations 
Development Programme in Brussels. 


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