Although Belgium for a long time was a nation of emigrants, the 20th century turned Belgium into a real immigration nation. Since a few years Belgium is receiving proportionally a lot more migrants than the United States or Canada, nonetheless being historical migrant nations. This new diversity, created in the course of the past 50 years, and the intake of young people hoping for a new start are a great opportunity of which the challenges for our country are numerous.

To make reflection possible in all social and economic domains, Itinera Institute is therefore organizing a series of conferences around the challenges of integration in Belgium.

The first conference, “Integration: what’s in a name? Going beyond multiculturalism for immigration nation Belgium” took place on Tuesday 15th of May, 2012. A number of papers from the speakers ar available on the website:   

• Immigration nation Belgium: statistics and trends (Laurent Hanseeuw, publication only available in French)
• From respect for the being different to an ethics of living together (Rachida Azdouz, publication only available in Dutch and French)
• Has integration policy failed? (Jozef De Witte, publication only available in Dutch)