Flemish recruiters see Walloon applicants as less ambitious, less punctual, and less productive
Although many vacancies remain open in Flanders and many people are looking for work in Wallonia, labour mobility between the two regions stays limited. In our experiment, we examined whether this has to do with prejudice among Flemish employers towards Walloon applicants. Even when Walloon applicants meet all the objective requirements for a vacancy, Flemish employers systematically prefer Flemish applicants. The explanation lies in stereotyped views of, among other things, productivity, punctuality, and cooperation.
The Flemish labour market struggles with structural staff shortages, while unemployment in Wallonia has remained stubbornly high for years. On paper, the solution looks simple: job seekers from Wallonia could fill open vacancies in Flanders. To reduce this mismatch between labour supply and demand, Belgian public employment services invest heavily in promoting interregional mobility. The idea is that people search for and find work beyond the borders of their own region.
In practice, this proves difficult. Only a small minority of Walloon job seekers make the move to the Flemish labour market. This is often attributed to the job seekers themselves, for instance because of language barriers or longer commutes. However, there may also be barriers on the employer side.
Our research zooms in on that side of the story. How do Flemish employers view Walloon applicants, and does regional origin play a role in hiring decisions?
An experiment with recruiters near the language border
Through an online experiment, we presented five fictitious applicants to Flemish recruiters working near the language border. The applicants differed in name, place of birth, place of residence, school location, and language proficiency. Based on these characteristics, the recruiters could infer whether an applicant was Flemish or Walloon, which we also asked them explicitly at the end of the experiment. We made no explicit statement about it ourselves, to avoid giving away the design of the study and biasing the results.
The recruiters’ task was to indicate how likely they would be to invite a given applicant for a job interview or to hire them. In addition, we asked how they rated the applicant on a series of statements relating either to the applicant’s productivity or to how much the recruiter, colleagues within the company, or clients would like working with this applicant. In each case, we specified the job the candidate was applying for and indicated that the candidate met all the objective requirements to apply, such as language proficiency and degree. In total, we collected 399 observations.
Stereotyped views of Walloon workers lead to discrimination
The research clearly shows that Flemish recruiters are less inclined to invite candidates they perceive as Walloon for a job interview or to actually hire them. Being perceived as a Walloon candidate lowers the probability of an invitation by 8 percentage points in our experiment.
When we zoom in on the perceptions Flemish employers hold about applicants from the two regions, we see that Walloon candidates are viewed in particular as (i) less ambitious, (ii) less available when needed, (iii) less adept in dealing with others, (iv) less responsible, and (v) less punctual.
Their productivity is also rated lower. According to the recruiters, they would get less work done, communicate less well, be less pleasant to work with, be less mature, show less respect for authority, and be less motivated. Moreover, recruiters indicate that they themselves would be less keen to work with Walloon candidates, and they expect colleagues and clients to be more reluctant, too.
Policy implications and tips for (Walloon) job seekers
Discrimination based on regional origin thus forms an extra barrier for Walloon job seekers who want to work in Flanders. This form of exclusion undermines the interregional labour mobility that Belgian public employment services actively try to stimulate. From a policy perspective, the findings underline the importance of recognising regional origin as a relevant diversity dimension in anti-discrimination measures.
In the experiment, candidates’ Walloon identity was inferred mainly from their place of residence, followed by their secondary school (in combination with limited proficiency in Dutch), their place of birth, and finally their name. Those who want to improve their chances on the Flemish labour market can consider leaving some of these signals off their CV, for example by mentioning only the degree obtained without naming the institution. It can also pay off to explicitly emphasise traits that are often perceived negatively in Walloon applicants, such as ambition, responsibility, and punctuality, in motivation letters or job interviews. In this way, Walloon job seekers can actively counter the stigmas that emerged from this research.
Discrimination does not stop at the language border. If we genuinely want an inclusive and mobile labour market, regional prejudices have to go as well.
This post also appeared via UGent @ Work, in Dutch. The study is joint work with Louise Devos, Dagmar Claus, and Stijn Baert. This page was last updated on 05 June 2026.