Immigrant Workers Discouraged

5 February 2007

BRUSSELS —Workers of immigrant descent are being harrassed out of public offices, Senator Mimount Bousakla told De Standaard. Bousakla has been collecting complaints from immigrant civil servants in Antwerp.

“Resentment towards positive discrimination is being taken out on workers of ethnic descent in the workplace,” said Bousakla. “Because people think they have been hired simply because they are of ethnic background and not because of their intrinsic qualities. That kind of harrassment is very discouraging.”

That said, Bousakla does not trust field tests. I’m afraid that in the course of the tests, young people of immigrant descent will be looking for proof of discrimination rather than jobs, she said.

Stimulating companies to hire employees of immigrant descent will work better than penalising them for not doing so, she added.

Subject: Belgian news