One in nine residents of Belgium is foreign

As of 2013, one in nine residents of Belgium is a foreigner, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The 1.2 million people have only a foreign passport. The majority of them come from the Netherlands, France and Italy, each with about 150,000 people, writes De Morgen.

Belgium welcomed 119,000 migrants in 2013, slightly less than in 2012 (123,000) and 2011 (132,000). The OECD does not include asylum-seekers in the figures. The newcomers were mainly from France (13,600), Romania (10,000), the Netherlands (9,000) and Poland (7,500).

Balancing out the influx of newcomers in 2013 was a group of people leaving the country the same year, about 92,000. The majority of them left Belgium to return to the same countries: France (10,000), the Netherlands (6,800), Romania (4,200) and Poland (4,000).

The study also reveals that 34,800 people acquired the Belgian nationality in 2013, 10% less than the year before. The decline is due to "stricter conditions for naturalisation", according to the OECD. Most "new Belgians" come from Morocco (5,900), Turkey (1,900), Italy (1,900), the Democratic Republic of Congo (1,500) and Russia (1,500).