Minister seeks to bar low-skilled non-EU migrants from working in Flanders
To curb labour migration from outside the EU, Flemish Employment minister Zuhal Demir wants to prevent low-skilled migrants from working in Flanders, De Tijd writes. High-skilled workers would be given priority instead, according to a memo she is planning to submit to the government.
While EU citizens are free to work in any member state, those from outside the bloc must obtain a permit. To this end, Flanders issues single permits that serve as both temporary work and residence permits. The region issued a record 19,000 single permits in 2024.
Demir, of Flemish conservatives N-VA, believes that too many of these single permits are used to fill low-skilled vacancies. The government has already made it more difficult for low-skilled workers from third countries to get permits, but they can still be hired for bottleneck jobs such as hotel cleaners, dishwashers and warehouse workers.
According to De Tijd, Demir wants to further reduce the influx of these low-skilled workers. The newspaper has seen a memo she plans to submit to the Flemish government, which would prevent low-skilled migrants from outside the EU from working in bottleneck jobs. The only exception would be seasonal work, such as fruit picking.
Demir's main aim is to prevent fraud. She is targeting companies that only employ non-EU workers "without taking into account the labour reserve available in Flanders and Belgium", the newspaper writes.
She wants stricter controls in countries of origin to ensure that diplomas and work experience certificates are genuine.
Demir also plans to reduce the number of bottleneck jobs for which medium-skilled workers from third countries can apply. She wants to compensate for that reduction by spending more resources on high-skilled workers. These cases should be given priority, according to the memo.
#FlandersNewsService | © BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS MAETERLINCK
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