Belgium announced on Friday that courses aimed at teaching “respect for women” would become compulsory for non-European migrants. It is not the first country to launch the controversial classes, with Norway and Denmark also pushing for increased education in sexual norms in the West for refugees.
In the wake of a reported mass-sex attack in Cologne, Germany, there has been an increase in anti-refugee rhetoric. Discussions about integration for those migrants coming from countries which are perceived to have different attitudes towards sex and sexuality have come into the limelight.
Belgium’s minister for education, Theo Francken, explained that the classes “will consist of a series of rules on how to behave with women in both a general and sexual sense in [Belgium’s] Western culture.”
Speaking to the Belgian broadcaster VRT, he denied that the courses would stigmatize refugees, claiming that they were necessary because of “the high number of single young men who arrive in Belgium, and who come from a culture where relations with women are totally different to the West.”
Norway was the first to introduce the classes, with Hero—the company which runs 40 per cent of the country’s refugee reception centers—kick starting lessons in cultural differences after what one representative described as a “wave of rapes” between 2009 and 2011.
Hero noted that their “aim is to help asylum seekers avoid mistakes as they discover Norwegian culture.”
In October, Denmark’s parliament debated teaching about sex and consent in language courses for refugees after three asylum seekers allegedly raped an Eritrean woman in the country.
While some argue that the classes are necessary, others believe they add to negative stereotypes of refugees.
