A chapter entitled “Right-Wing Populism, Crumbling Migrants’ Rights and Strategies of Resistance in Belgium”, written bij Ellen Desmet and Stijn Smet, was published open access in the volume “Migrants' Rights, Populism and Legal Resilience in Europe”, edited by Vladislava Stoyanova and Stijn Smet.

The authors conclude: “Most of the constitutional safeguards that prevent a hypothetical slide towards authoritarianism only provide weak constraints, at best, against the very real and systematic undermining of migrants’ rights. …. Belgian migration policy in the period 2014–2019, formulated and implemented under a centre-right coalition, has been characterized by multiple efforts to weaken the legal and actual position of migrants in general, and asylum seekers, family migrants and irregular migrants in particular. … The combination of a strong civil society and an independent judiciary is key to offer resistance against this development. Civil society actors initiating judicial proceedings has been the most effective means of challenging rights-restricting migration measures in Belgium. … Spurred on by civil society initiatives, the judiciary has at least halted some of the most egregious measures infringing upon migrants’ rights, such as the asylum quotas. Yet, more subtle or systemic measures aimed at undermining migrants’ rights have often not been questioned by these same courts in their – at times legalistic and formalistic – analysis … In this sense, our conclusion is that the highest courts of Belgium have safeguarded minimal respect for migrants’ rights, whereas a maximalist interpretation of migrants’ rights could have led to a more stringent and critical review of the contested migration laws and regulations.”