Austerity and isolation in immigrant communities
It is important to mention that EU policies have encouraged austerity measures that affected the welfare policies of nation states including Belgium and France, and that this appears to be harmful for people belonging to non-EU communities who depend on state support. Such a situation was provoked by the global recession and the eurozone crisis that began in Ireland and other Southern European nation states including Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Most EU member states were left with no other choice but to reduce spending on social programs in order to balance federal budgets and avoid any serious form of bankruptcies in the future.
