Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
Almost a quarter of the private sector in Belgium, namely 23.5% of all self-employed people, are of foreign origin.
This is just one of the findings of the second edition of the "Entrepreneurship and Diversity" study, conducted by the Small and Medium Enterprises Observatory.
In the period under review, 2008-2017, the share of self-employed workers in the entire labor force increased from 14.2 to 15.8 percent, and persons of foreign origin recorded an increase from 9.2 percent to 10.3 percent.
  Federal Minister for the Self Employed David Clarenvall (MR) presented the findings recently.
From the low percentage of self-employed persons of foreign origin and other findings, researchers recognize that this group faces specific barriers, such as poorer language proficiency, lack of (recognition) diplomas or poor social and financial capital.

Thus, the level of education, among other things, plays a decisive role. A higher level of education is anyway a good indicator of entrepreneurship, but it is also surprising that highly educated people of foreign origin, educated in Belgium, choose entrepreneurship more often than native Belgians with the same level of education.

Women are underrepresented in self-employment statistics of all origins. "It starts with their upbringing, where they are taught less important entrepreneurial skills, there are fewer role models and they have a different social network," the researchers explained. Clarenvall noted that a plan was announced last week with various measures to promote female entrepreneurship in the coming years.

Central location

More than 60 percent of self-employed people of foreign origin come from other countries of the European Union. The most underrepresented country groups are the Maghreb (6.2 percent of that region) and sub-Saharan Africa (4.3 percent). Other origins, such as people from eastern EU countries and Asia, are overrepresented.

The general increase in the number of self-employed people is not only for demographic reasons. Researchers point, among other things, to Belgium's central geographic location and the presence of EU institutions, but also to "the general phenomenon of 'autonomy' of the labor market", the historical context and Belgian immigration history.

Through people of foreign origin, the researchers were interested in people with a foreign nationality, who were born with a foreign nationality or one of whose parents was born with a foreign nationality. This group constitutes 25.2 percent of the working population and 31.6 percent of the total population.