Moroccans in Belgium
Total population | |
---|---|
429,580 (2012) | |
Religion | |
Islam Minority: Judaism, Irreligion, Christianity[3] | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Arabs and Berbers in Belgium |
History
Year | Pop. | ±% |
---|---|---|
1961 | 461 | — |
1970 | 39,294 | +8423.6% |
1981 | 105,133 | +167.6% |
1991 | 142,098 | +35.2% |
2002 | 90,642 | −36.2% |
Source: [4] |
There has been a Moroccan presence in
The rapid recovery of the Belgian economy after World War II was based on the rapid revival of coal mining and heavy industry which experienced an acute labour shortage. As a response, the Belgian government entered into various guest worker programmes aimed at encouraging workers to travel to Belgium on work contracts. The first such agreement was made with Italy in 1946 but the arrangement collapsed after large-scale loss of life among Italian workers in the Marcinelle mining disaster in 1956. Alternative agreements were concluded with Spain (1956) and Greece (1957) and later Turkey (1964). Belgium also began to look to recruiting migrant workers from North Africa from 1957 but the process was complicated by the ongoing Algerian War.[4]
A guest worker agreement was signed with Morocco on 17 August 1964. This made Morocco the first North African state to make such an agreement with Belgium.
As of 2023, there are a total of 699,296 North Africans in Belgium, of which a majority are Moroccans. A total of 258,603 North Africans reside in the
Number of Moroccans in larger cities [citation needed] | |||||||||
# | City | People | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Brussels | 34,984 | |||||||
2. | Antwerp | 11,780 | |||||||
3. | Liège | 7,634 | |||||||
4. | Charleroi | 5,403 | |||||||
5. | Namur | 2,836 |
Community
Moroccans form a major immigrant ethnic group in Belgium. The number of people with at least one parent born with Moroccan nationality was 430,000 on 1 January 2012, or about 4 percent of the national population.[citation needed] This proportion was 6.7% among those under 15 years of age. Belgium also represents one of the most important centres of the Moroccan diaspora. The Brussels-Capital Region has the most Moroccans in Belgium (45%), followed by Antwerp (22.7%), Liège (8.8%) and Charleroi (5.2%).
A large majority of Moroccans in Belgium originate from northern Morocco (
It was reported in 2019 that six Moroccan-Belgians had been elected to the Chamber of Representatives and 21 in regional parliaments.[9]
It was reported in 2020 that more than 1,500 Moroccan-Belgian dual nationals in Morocco had request repatriation to Belgium during the COVID-19 pandemic.[10]
There is a small
Radicalization
In the 2012–2016 timespan, of the approximately 500 individuals who left the country to
Notable people
Members of parliament or of government
Others
See also
References
- ^ "429.580 Belges sont d'origine marocaine: deux fois plus qu'il y a 20 ans!" (in French). Sud-Info. 14 July 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
- ^ "Spaanse Marokkanen: In dit apenland kan alles, redeneren ze" (in Dutch). Gazette van Antwerpen. 13 October 2009. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
- ISBN 978-9047428503
- ^ a b c d Loriaux, Florence. "L'immigration marocaine en Belgique (1964-2004)" (PDF). Centre d'animation et de recherche en histoire ouvrière et populaire (CARHOP). Retrieved 29 July 2020.
- ^ Laporte, Christian (16 February 2014). "1/2 siècle d'immigration belgo-marocaine" (in French). La Libre Belgique. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
- ^ "Origin | Statbel". statbel.fgov.be. Retrieved 2023-07-04.
- ^ Libre.be, La. "1/2 siècle d'immigration belgo-marocaine" (in French). Retrieved 2017-07-25.
- ^ sudinfo.be. "429.580 Belges sont d'origine marocaine: deux fois plus qu'il y a 20 ans!". sudinfo (in French). Retrieved 2017-07-25.
- ^ "Six Belgians of Moroccan Descent Enter Belgian Parliament | The North Africa Post". The North African Post. 31 May 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
- ^ Loos, Baudouin (13 April 2020). "Coronavirus: 1.500 binationaux bloqués au Maroc se sont inscrits pour être rapatriés, annonce Goffin" (in French). Le Soir. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
- ^ "Les juifs marocains de Belgique fêtent La Mimouna" (in French). Conseil de la communauté marocaine à l'étranger (CCME). 11 May 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
- ^ "When It Comes To Radicalization In Belgium, Turks and Moroccans Are Different". NPR.org. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
More than 500 Belgians have left for Syria since 2012 and most of them, according to Belgian and U.S. officials, have been of Moroccan descent.
- ^ Van Vlierden, Guy; Lewis, Jon; Rassler, Don (February 2018). Beyond the Caliphate (PDF). Combating Terrorism Center. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 February 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
Further reading
- Timmerman, Christiane, ed. (2018). Moroccan Migration in Belgium: More than 50 Years of Settlement. Leuven: Leuven University Press. ISBN 9789461662569.
- Frennet-De Keyser, A. (2004). "L'immigration marocaine en Belgique". In Morelli, Anne (ed.). Histoire des étrangers et de l'immigration en Belgique, de la préhistoire à nos jours (2nd ed.). Charleroi: Couleur livres. pp. 329–54. ISBN 9782870034019.
- Bousetta, Hassan; Martiniello, Marco (2003). "Marocains de Belgique : du travailleur immigré au citoyen transnational". Hommes & Migrations. 1242 (1242): 94–106. .
- Bastenier, Albert (18 August 2016). "L'incidence du facteur religieux dans la "conscience ethnique" des immigrés marocains en Belgique". Social Compass. 45 (2): 195–218. S2CID 144548558.
- Roofthoofd, Nils (2019). "Met vallen en opstaan. Het ontstaan van de Marokkaanse gemeenschap in Mechelen en het integratiebeleid (1962-1982)". Brood & Rozen. 24 (1). .
External links
- Media related to Moroccan diaspora in Belgium at Wikimedia Commons