Alien policy in Belgium, 1840-1940 : the creation of guest workers, refugees and illegal aliens

Belgium has a unique place in the history of migration in that it was the first among industrialized nations in Continental Europe to develop into an immigrant society. In the nineteenth century Italians, Jews, Poles, Czechs, and North Africans settled in Belgium to work in industry and commerce. They were followed by Russians in the 1920s and Germans in the 1930s who were seeking a safe haven from persecution by totalitarian regimes. In the nineteenth century immigrants were to a larger extent integrated into Belgian society: they were denied political rights but participated on equal terms with Belgians in social life. This changed radically in the twentieth century; by 1940 the rights of aliens were severely curtailed, while those of Belgian citizens, in particular in the social domain, were extended. While the state evolved into a "welfare state" for its citizens it became more of a police state for immigrants. The state only tolerated immigrants who were prepared to carry out those jobs that were shunned by the Belgians. Under the pressure of public opinion, an exception was made in the cases of thousands of Jewish refugees that had fled from Nazi Germany.However, other immigrants were subjected to harsh regulations and in fact became the outcasts of twentieth-century Belgian liberal society. This remarkable study examines in depth and over a long time span how (anti-) alien policies were transformed, resulting in an illiberal exclusion of foreigners at the same time as democratization and the welfare state expanded. In this respect Belgium is certainly not unique but offers an interesting case study of developments that are characteristic for Europe as a whole.--A Brutal Alien Policy 1840-1861 1 --Alien Policy in the Heyday of Liberalism 1861-1914 19 --Inchoate Regulation of Immigration into Belgium 1919-1924 53 --Liberal Alien Policy Under Severe Strain 1925-1928 81 --Migrant Entrepreneurs in Belgium During the 1920s 101 --Legal Emigration of Polish and Czechoslovakian Jews 107 --At the Threshold of Change 1929-1932 111 --Desertion Polish labor ACCBS April 1929 119 --The Xenophobic Response to the Depression 1932-1935 155 --Belgian and Foreign Miners in the Belgian Mining 180 --The Rationalization of the Radical Alien Policy 197 --Date of Establishment of PolishJewish Enterprises 214 --Alien Policy in Turmoil 1938-1940 231 --Refugees Registered at the End of Each Week by the Jewish 234 --Enforcement of the Law of 31 3 1936 Legal Complaints 240 --General Conclusions 257 --Appendices 289 --Bibliography 309 --List of Abbreviations 319 --CopyrightPublished version of EUI PhD thesis, 199