Managed migration in Belgium
Recent stories
Family reunification measures tightened
Family reunification regulations have been tightened with preconditions applied before foreign partners are allowed to enter Belgium and the minimum age requirement raised from eighteen to twenty-one.
1 July 2006 (57 words)
Vlaams Belang demands integration test
The Vlaams Belang has called for all foreign residents in Flanders to pass an 'integration test' composed of knowledge of the Dutch language and Flemish culture.
13 December 2004 (89 words)
Discipline charges dropped in Adamu case
Disciplinary charges against two of the four police officers charged with the death of Semira Adamu have been dropped and the same is expected for the remaining officers.
10 December 2004 (81 words)
Death threat to protestor over van Gogh killing
Mimount Moussakla, a socialist senator was put under police protection after receiving death threats when she said that Belgium's Muslim Executive (an umbrella group) should have organised protests against the murder of Theo van Gogh, killed in Amsterdam by an alleged extremist on 2 November.
22 November 2004 (77 words)
King defends boss who allows the headscarf
King Albert II has voiced solidarity with a company boss who faces a death threat for defending an Islamic employee's right to wear the headscarf.
30 October 2004 (69 words)
Remembering Semira Adamu
On 25 September 2004, six years after her death, hundreds of anti-racists took part in a memorial in Brussels to Semira Adamu, who was killed using the 'cushion technique' during a deportation.
19 September 2004 (40 words)
Forced name changes
Some employers in Flanders are forcing immigrant workers to adopt Belgian-sounding names.
2 September 2004 (64 words)
Draft legislation to ban hijab in state schools
Two French-speaking Belgian senators have presented a draft law to the Senate to ban the hijab in state schools.
15 April 2004 (591 words)
Voting right for immigrants is electoral issue
Senators from the Flemish Liberal Democrats (VLD), the prime minister's party, the Vlaams Blok and the Flemish Christian Democrats managed to prolong a debate on the bill to extend voting rights in communal elections to non-EU foreign residents, so no vote could be taken.
5 February 2004 (180 words)
Removing headscarf for identity card, not necessary
A court has ruled in favour of a Muslim woman who was ordered to remove her veil for an identity photograph.
15 January 2004 (107 words)
Flemish Liberal leader launches managed migration debate
Interior Minister, Patrick Dewael, a Flemish liberal Democrat, has launched a debate on the desirability of increasing legal immigration to Belgium.
1 January 2004 (97 words)
Integration plan to be updated
The Flemish welfare minister Mieke Vogels has announced that the 1996 integration plan, which was aimed at the integration of Moroccans and Turks, will be updated by June 2004 to reflect the fact that immigrant communities, made up of 186 nationalities, are highly diverse.
28 October 2003 (81 words)
Laeken: headteacher bars Muslim girls from wearing headscarf
In September, at the start of the new school term, Muslim students and their parents staged a protest outside the Brussels II Athenaeum in Laeken after the headteacher announced that he would no longer allow pupils to wear the hijab.
25 October 2003 (85 words)
Flemish government wants new integration programme
The Flemish government says that by June 2003 it will have set in place a plan to improve the integration of minority groups in the region.
28 October 2002 (71 words)
Angolan with valid visa detained
Despite having a valid visa, a young Angolan woman was detained for several nights in July at Brussels National airport en route to Portugal.
1 October 2001 (93 words)
Anti-refugee hysteria provokes coastguard panic
In March, the effect of anti-refugee hysteria became all too apparent when hundreds of Belgian, Dutch and French coastguards were mobilised and a crisis centre set up in Brussels to deal with the sighting of a cargo boat suspected to be carrying 1,000 refugees.
1 October 2001 (59 words)
Disappointment in regularisation process
According to the Commission on Regularisation, only ten per cent of candidates for regularisation have received a definite response.
1 October 2001 (29 words)
Talks with Russia as Belgium introduces visa regime
In April, Belgian interior minister Antoine Duquesne visited Moscow to discuss illegal migration and the specific issue of how Belgium could return those Russians who had been denied asylum in Belgium.
1 October 2001 (351 words)
Nationality law grants citizenship rights
A new nationality law means that in future all those born in Belgium, those with at least one Belgian parent, or those residing in the country for at least seven years, may become citizens simply by registering in their commune.
1 January 2001 (70 words)
Objectief 479917 announces election campaign
The organisation Objectief 479917 is set to make voting rights for immigrants of five years' standing an issue at the European parliament elections in June and local elections in October.
1 May 1994 (62 words)
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