The first scientific study on the origins of jobseekers in Brussels confirmed on Thursday the difficulty of landing a job for people of foreign origin, even with the same qualifications as native Belgians.
Young people of sub-Saharan African origin have the hardest time being accepted on the labour market: 40% as against 11% for their counterparts of Belgian origin.
Time spent on the job over a period of three years also varies sharply according to one’s origins.
Some categories of persons suffer from a combination of discrimination-prone factors. These include female heads of single-parent households who are of North African or Turkish origin and wear veils. Such women face greater discrimination, even though they are more qualified on average, than their male counterparts.
The study was commissioned by the Brussels Minister of Labour and Professional Training, Didier Gossuin, as part of a plan for fighting discrimination.
It was conducted by views.brussels, the Brussels employment and training observatory, based on jobseeker cohorts registered with the Brussels employment agency, Actiris, between 2013 and 2016, and data from Banque Carrefour de la Sécurité Sociale (BCSS – Crossroads Bank for Social Security).
The researchers combined data on foreign origins – at birth or with at least one foreign parent – with other data such as gender, degree of training and place of abode.
The Brussels Times
