Zuhal Demir: “Belgium needs more migrants who work”

“Belgium has a big problem getting second and third generation migrants to work,” says MP Zuhal Demir. A mere 48 percent, i.e. not even half, of all our citizens with an immigration background finds a job, according to OECD The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), established in 1961 as a result of the Marshall Plan, is a cooperation agreement between 34 countries in order to study and coordinate social and economic policy. The member countries try to solve their problems jointly and to mutually align their international policy. The organisation also collects statistical information to make comparative analyses. These OECD analyses are a valuable basis for the N-VA to test policy against itself or even to give shape to it. OECD figures. Only France does worse, among our neighbouring countries. “The socialists, who were in power for 25 years, bear a crushing responsibility for this failing immigration policy. Their open-door policy was an outright failure, and we need to learn from this.”

Integration is a big problem in the Belgian labour market. And second and third generation migrants are the victim of this. “During the previous legislature sp.a Employment Minister Monica De Coninck also abolished the trial period and increased the notice periods for blue-collar workers. These are negative stimuli for employing more migrants and other vulnerable groups. We must eliminate the obstacles for employment instead of further increasing them,” Demir suggests.

Priority: the modernisation of labour law
The N-VA believes this can be done in three ways. Firstly, we must limit the uncontrolled influx of unskilled migrants. We cannot absorb, integrate and employ people indefinitely. “If figures show that you already have a problem with the employment of second and third generation migrants, then there is no point in making the problems even worse,” says Demir. “There is no support for this in this country.”

In addition to this, we must also increase and accelerate access to the labour market for migrants and other vulnerable groups. That is why we need to reintroduce the trial period, eliminate unemployment traps and reduce the cost of labour.

Finally, we must cap unemployment benefits in time, so everyone is motivated to work.

“The current government is doing a good job but we still have a long way to go. This will reduce the labour cost and make working more rewarding. But our coalition agreement also contains an entire chapter on the modernisation of labour law, which should be our priority for the coming year,” Demir concludes.