Abstract: This dissertation investigates labour migration towards Belgium and the problematic labour market integration of immigrants in Belgium. The dissertation title – Is labour migration hurting migrant labour? – refers to the central tension that motivated the writing of this doctoral thesis. On the one hand, Belgium (and, by extension, Europe) needs labour migration. Due to growing labour shortages, skill mismatches and cost concerns, Belgium continuously imports migrant labour sourced from the other Member States and non-EU countries. On the other hand, however, Belgium already has a significant labour reserve of unemployed, inactive and underemployed people, many of whom are immigrants. While (labour) migration seems critical for the European and Belgian labour market and society, immigrants’ labour market incorporation remains a formidable challenge. Often it is mentioned that Europe needs more labour migration. However, the reality on the ground is that there are already high labour migration levels. I refer here to the under-highlighted phenomenon of the posting of workers, which has provided the Belgian and European labour markets with very high numbers of temporary workers who are legally not part of the labour market but who nevertheless are indispensable in specific sectors of the economy. If we consider posting as part of the migration landscape, much more labour inflow is occurring than is usually presumed. The immense popularity of posting in Belgium and Europe highlights the severity of the labour market integration problem of resident immigrants. Any academic theory considers the lack of host-country language skills, recognition of foreign educational credentials and social networks as severe impediments to immigrants’ economic integration. Paradoxically, however, none of these barriers – seemingly hard to overcome for ‘proper’ immigrants – are at play for posted workers. Posted workers are the quintessential outsiders who are much more in demand on the local labour market than ‘regular’ ...