Hiding the Immigrants

Our Flemish correspondent VH has translated an article that was posted yesterday at the Vlaams Belang website, and follows it with his own explanatory material:

Immigration: The hidden truth

Two weeks ago it was made public that in 2007, the most recent year for which complete figures are available, immigration again increased, and at the same time broke an absolute record.

We pointed out then that the official number of foreigners of course did not include the “New Belgians”. Although in 2007 no fewer than 75,350 foreigners were added, the official numbers rose by only 39,387 (to 971,488) because in the same year, no less than 36,063 immigrants became “Belgian,” and thus disappeared from the statistics.

This information is usually not taken into account in the media, as our now well-known sociologist Jan Hertogen states. He points out that the number of “New Belgians” has to be taken into consideration to obtain a “real” picture of the immigrant evolution. By focusing on the official immigration figures (which therefore do not take into account the “New Belgians”), the actual increase in the number of immigrants according to Hertogen is hidden: “Nowhere it is clear that the growth of the number of immigrants in reality and in our social life is 75,350, and not 39,287,” Hertogen says.

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The left-wing sociologist then does a calculation over the past twenty years. Throughout this period — in which an official immigration freeze was actually in force — there were no fewer than 715,510 (!) immigrants. A fact that is not reflected in the immigration numbers. That figure rose officially from 858,650 to 971,448 because in the same period 602,712 acquired Belgian nationality. (More than half of them became “Belgian” after 2000 when the “Quick Belgian Act,” the most lax nationality law in the world — was introduced.) The immigrant progression, as Hertogen concludes, shows an increase in the number of foreigners by 715,510. A completely different picture from the one the media and politicians always show the citizens.

VH adds this note:

The “Snel-Belgwet” [“Quick Belgian Act”] is a law that simplifies the conditions for naturalization for a category of immigrants. The original purpose was to avoid discussion of voting rights for immigrants, and yet still reach the desired result: scooping up the immigrant vote for the governing parties of Verhofstadt 1: the Christian Democrats, the Socialists and the Greens.

As a side effect, the “Quick Belgian Act” made it easier to become Belgian then to apply for a resident visa. For instance, the Act assumes that those who apply deserve the presumption that they are properly integrated because they apply. It was sort of cosmetically repaired in details later (and on the other hand made weaker) to soothe the electorate. The Socialist minister of justice, Laurette Onkelinx, made it possible in 2006 for people to become Belgian without having ever been in Belgium themselves.