Last year, 15.7% of workers in Belgium were non-Belgian nationals. This is a slight decline of 0.1 percentage points, bucking the trend of previous years, according to a report by Acerta.
The healthcare sector, however, showed a contrasting increase of 2 percentage points.
The proportion of non-Belgian workers in healthcare, although still below the average at 10.2%, has risen from 6.4% a decade ago.
Within healthcare, the highest percentage of non-Belgian workers (23%) are found in manual roles when compared to the 9% in administrative positions.
Acerta attributes this difference to the relative unimportance of language skills in these roles, where tasks often revolve around housekeeping, catering or technical services, rather than direct patient care.
Language factors also explain why the proportion of non-Belgian workers is higher in the southern part of Belgium than in Flanders. Acerta pointed out that the larger French-speaking zone outside of Belgium makes working in Wallonia easier than in Flanders, where Dutch is spoken.
Nevertheless, it is Dutch nationals who are best represented among non-Belgian healthcare workers, at 26.1%. They are followed by the French (22.2%), Moroccans (13.3%), Germans (10.2%) and Congolese (8.8%).
Considering all sectors, the top five countries of origin for foreign workers in Belgium are France (18.4%), the Netherlands (16.4%), Morocco (16.2%), Romania (15.6%) and Poland (12.7%).
