"Let immigrants start, you then notice they are good forces"

The labour market study on employment in the port of Antwerp presented by the University of Antwerp and the province last week has not left business leaders in the sector unmoved. So did Johan Gemels, director at ATO. Commenting on LinkedIn, he wrote: “The ethnic distribution of personnel in the port is indeed very different from that of our Belgian population. Why is this actually the case? Prejudice among employers? Inappropriate selection procedures? What is certain is that in the port we fail to attract a large group of motivated and competent people who happen not to be called Georges or Vandaele, sometimes unconsciously, unfortunately sometimes consciously. Demographics will force employers to have a more open mind.” We wanted to discuss that with him further.