The 8th edition of Myriatics clarifies that, at the Belgian level, statistics on international immigration are the sum of three components:

• declared migrations
• re-registration of persons automatically removed
• persons having changed registry

Immigration flows therefore reflect not only the annual inflow into the territory, but also the flow of asylum, through the recognition of a form of international protection or issuing a residence permit on another basis (including regularization).

The following findings are described in Myriatics 8:

• During the year 2016, 136.327 immigrations from foreigners were registered.
• Together, the EU-28 citizens account for 57% of the registered immigrations in 2016. 
• +- 9.000 Syrians immigrated in 2016 (SYR in top 5 countries of immigration).
• In 2016, 17.797 persons were transferred from the waiting list to the register of foreigners (ie 13% of immigrants). This is the 2nd highest number since the waiting registry was created.
• Asylum is far from being the only gateway for third-country nationals to Belgium: in 2016, the main reason for migration of third-country nationals (all nationalities) was family reunification. In 2016, one third of the first residence permits issued to Syrians were based on family reasons. That's about 2,000 people, twice as many as in 2015 and close to five times more than in 2014.

Please read more in the attached Myriatics or visit the website of Myria.