Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts Position Paper

I was asked to serve as the author of a position paper on multicultural issues for the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. The 40-page document sketches out the general situation in Belgium as regards multiculturalism and the future challenges it poses to Belgian society, and draws some conclusions as to how academic research could contribute to long-term thinking about this subject.[1]  

After having reviewed the various positions taken by Belgian law to multiculturalism through history, in the paper I show how, in each period, the approach to diversity was driven by the socio-economic conditions of the day. Today, legislation is being implemented with the purpose of balancing the diversity that results from present-day mobility with claims deriving from human rights principles. One of the key questions this balancing exercise raises is whether the principle of non-discrimination is an adequate legal instrument to ensure the participation of all groups, especially the new minorities, in society.

The position paper was written in 2019 and was approved in December 2019 by the Humanities Section of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts after review by four of its members.[2] The document will appear in the Academy’s Standpuntenprogramma series in the course of 2020.