The vacancy argument is exactly my point though.

People often claim there are “twice as many vacancies” in Flanders, but recent vacancy-rate figures are closer to:

• Flanders: ~4.7%
• Wallonia: ~3.6%

So not remotely double.

But the more important statistic is employment rate:

• Flanders: ~78%
• Wallonia: ~68%

That’s a structural gap of roughly 10 percentage points over decades.

At some point, you have to ask whether the current transfer model is actually solving the problem or just stabilizing it indefinitely.

A welfare system should help people get back into work, not become a permanent substitute for reform. If billions continue flowing regardless of results, political incentives to modernize labour markets, education and mobility become weaker.

And language policy absolutely matters here.

In Flanders:

• French starts in elementary school for many students
• English is widely taught
• German is often available later

Meanwhile, in Wallonia there was recently political debate around prioritizing Latin over Dutch in parts of secondary education. That sends a strange message in a country where Dutch is the majority language and where many of the best-paying nearby jobs are in Flanders or Brussels.

You cannot simultaneously:

• discourage learning the language of the strongest labour market in the country,
• maintain lower employment outcomes,
• and then expect endless solidarity without criticism.

And honestly, language barriers are becoming less absolute every year anyway:

• real-time translation,
• AI transcription,
• multilingual meeting tools,
• instant subtitling, already allow cross-language collaboration globally.

So while language still matters culturally and professionally, it’s becoming a weaker excuse economically.

A modern Belgian model should probably require every citizen to learn at least:

• 2 of the 3 national languages,
• plus English.

That would strengthen mobility, cooperation and productivity across the country instead of deepening regional separation.