Although Belgium for a long time was a nation of emigrants, the 20^th 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” will take place on Tuesday 15th of May, 2012 and will treat the fundamentals behind the integration challenge. Various other conferences will follow in the course of 2012 and 2013, each treating an aspect of the challenges of integration, such as education, local policy, labour market etc.

Program

14h30:
Registration

14h50:
Mobilization for integration
Introduction by Marc De Vos, Itinera Institute

15h:
Immigration nation Belgium: statistics and trends.
Laurent Hanseeuw, Itinera Institute

15h30:
Multiculturalism, inter-culturalism or assimilation? Change for the best!
Rachida Azdouz, University of Montreal

16h:
Integration policy unraveled: the way forward.
Jozef De Witte, CECGK

16h30:
Debate

17h:
Reception

The presentation and the reactions will be given in Dutch and French but questions can be asked in the language of your choice. This event is free of charge but the available seats are limited.