History and policy: cultural conformity and the documentary approach

The Belgian nationality policy recognized relatively late the role of migrations in the definition of the citizenry as, despite active recruitment policies of migrant workers starting in 1946, the first substantial reform of the nationality law happened only in 1984. This is in contrast to France, for example, in which immigration was a factor in nationality policy as early as in the 19th century, but is not as late as the German case, in which citizenship reform recognizing immigration happened only in 1999 (see, for example, Brubaker, 1992; Green, 2000; Hajjat, 2012). Substantial work migration linked to the heavy industry, and especially to the coal mines, of Wallonia developed between the late 19th century and World War II (Caestecker, 2000; Stengers, 2004). From 1946 to 1974 Belgium had a migration policy comparable to that of neighbouring France, the Netherlands, West Germany and Luxembourg. The policy involved active recruitment of workers from abroad, both through bilateral agreements with countries of emigration, and through publicity directed to potential migrants inviting them to come work in Belgium. The first agreement was signed with Italy in 1946, and one of the main objectives of the European Economic Community (the precursor of the European Union, created in 1958) was to facilitate the recruitment of Italian workers in the other five member states. Subsequently, Belgium signed agreements with Spain, Greece, Morocco, Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria and Yugoslavia (Martiniello and Rea, 2011; Martiniello, 2013). Of those, Morocco, Turkey and Italy became some of the main nationalities among migrants in Belgium. If the Benelux countries, France and Germany were active in recruiting migrant workers, on the other hand the dominant approach was that of the ‘guest worker’, that is, the expectation was for the migrants to have a short stay in the country before completing a return migration (Castles, 1986; Akgunduz, 2012; De Bock, 2018). In addition to limited recognition of migrants’ rights, especially in terms of settlement, the entries for reasons of work were rapidly closed with the 1973 oil crisis and the associated slump in north-western European economies.