The Long and Winding Road to Employment. An Analysis of the Labour Market Careers of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Belgium: summary

An increase in the numbers of spontaneous asylum seekers in Belgium since the late 1990s has led to a series of restrictive legislative changes of the procedure in the last 14 years (2001, 2007). In 2003, a new law was introduced with the intention of improving the labour market rights of asylum seekers in order to increase their labour market participation. However, between 2007 and 2010, this integration was hindered because of the contradiction between the 2003 Act and the 2007 Act. Even though the rate of recognition of asylum seekers is low (between 10 and 20%), the increase of foreigners from third country nationals holding a permanent residence permit in Belgium results mainly from this specific category of migrants. Therefore analyzing the socioeconomic integration of this population has become crucial in the current situation.