The Flemish Region registered more than 77,700 immigrants in 2021, while 47,600 people left for destinations abroad, the Flemish Statistical Office reported on Tuesday.
This brought the international migration balance in 2021 to about +30,200, a higher figure than in recent years due to the recovery in immigration after the COVID pandemic and a smaller recovery in the number of emigrations, Statistics Flanders reported.
International migration to and from the Flemish Region had been showing a positive balance for a long time. However, there was a noticeable drop in 2020 as a result of the corona pandemic, before the numbers went up again in 2021.
About half of the international immigrants came from other EU countries, with Romania leading the way, followed by the Netherlands and Bulgaria. The top ten also included two non-European nations: Morocco and Turkey.
The bulk of the migrants were men. Only among the Moroccans was there a slight majority of women (53 percent).
