Towards migration impact assessment in Flanders/Belgium?

This papers looks from a practitioner perspective to the use of expert knowledge in the Flemish regional policy approach regarding the reception/integration of migrants as part of an overall European Union policy. In the... [ view full abstract ]

This papers looks from a practitioner perspective to the use of expert knowledge in the Flemish regional policy approach regarding the reception/integration of migrants as part of an overall European Union policy.
In the course of 2015 the European Union has been confronted by an extreme huge influx of migrants and refugees. In order to address the crisis the European Union (EU) Institutions developed policies including agreements about the distribution (relocation/resettlement) of refugees over the EU member states. The scope of the crisis in 2015 challenged not only EU institutions but certainly the societies and communities where the migrants finally arrived.
Regarding migration policies in Belgium the federal level is responsible for the major issues like entrance (border control), security (defence, police), human rights and social protection. The subnational governments (regional/local) are mainly competent for person-related issues like education, work, family and youth policies, culture including the native language and also the civic integration of migrants.
Up to now, impact assessment (IA) is not a general requirement in the policy making process of the Flemish region. Some sector IA approaches exist however like environmental and mobility impact assessments. Regulatory Impact Assessment has been aligned with the Sustainability Impact Assessment approach and includes now also requirements regarding gender, youth and poverty assessments.
For the management of the impact of the refugee crisis the Flemish regional government decided to establish a taskforce and further implementation work was delegated to the concerned administrations, like the Home Affairs Agency, the Agency for Civic Integration and sector-administrations (education, welfare, work).
However the policy brief of the responsible Minister refers to the engagement of experts in further policy developments, at least the potential of a Migration Impact Assessment (P. Nijkamp et.al., 2012) seems to have been overlooked. The paper tries to clarify why...