Already 10,000 Belgians emigrated in 2008

Foreign affairs announced this week (Article: 23th of October 2008) that in the first 9 months of this year 9,713 Belgians packed their bags and moved from their homeland. Now over 326,000 Belgians live abroad, or at least that’s what the official figures say. The ministry of foreign affairs only relies on the consular register but signing up in a Belgian consulate or embassy is optional, so the actual figure could be much higher.
The most popular countries haven’t changed a lot: France (96,124) is head and shoulders above all the other countries, second are the netherlands (28,550), Spain (21,333) stays popular as well. Most popular non European destinations are the U.S.A (20,039), Canada (12,100), South Africa (7,360) and Australia/New-Zeeland (together about 4,000 Belgian expats). Some countries like the United Arab Emirates (1,565), China (2,167), Japan (693) and India (588) are welcoming more Belgians than ever before. Some of the least favourite destinations are Azerbaijan (11), Estonia (15), Lithuania (21), Gabon (29), Kazakhstan (32), Kosovo (33) and Jamaica (34).

Felix Braeckman

Source: Gazet van Antwerpen (23/10/2008)