Les expatriés de Bruxelles vus comme une communauté à part[en] 

Over half of the Belgian capital's population is of foreign origin, and almost half of its households are multilingual, according to figures presented at an April meeting of the Brussels Citizens' Forum (EurActiv 30/04/09). 

But Brussels "is not yet a model sustainable city, it is not truly a place of intercultural dialogue, and it is not a place where there are equal opportunities for everyone," the forum concluded. 

Stakeholders gathered for the event called on expats to be granted the right to vote in regional elections and consulted in discussions on the city's future.

Meanwhile in March, European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas presented plans to give the EU quarter in Brussels a "spectacular" facelift, announcing the winners of a competition to revitalise the area by giving it a more "symbolic" and "human" feel (EurActiv 06/03/09).  

But the research , conducted over six months via 30 interviews with young professionals (23-35) from 25 different European countries, in fact found that expats living in the city "are not as well off as one might think" and "do not necessarily form a community with its own identity," despite their tendency not to mix with the local population. 

High-skilled expats working for the EU institutions and related entities such as national and regional representations, NGOs, consultancies and other civil society organisations number around 100,000, which represents 10% of the city's population, according to Brussels-Europe Liaison Office figures.

Contact with Belgians 'minimal' 

Brussels Studies' research finds that these expats are usually highly-educated, job-driven and are well-paid. They are very sociable and generally young, but only live in the city for short periods. Moreover, they gather in an international community, have minimal contact with Belgians and often cannot speak French or Dutch. 

Expats differ from migrants in that "they […] go to Brussels not because they are motivated by basic needs, but rather by professional reasons or because they seek an experience abroad". 

Migrants, in contrast, are perceived as "people who are obliged to leave their countries because of the tough life and work conditions in their homeland," the study explains. 

Expat impact 'positive' 

"Expats seem to represent a sort of ‘positive’ immigration (although sometimes annoying for the changes it entails in Brussels' urban environment), in contrast with 'negative' traditional immigration, which is sometimes the target of xenophobia, stereotyped as potentially violent, prone to crime and hardly or not at all integrated," the study states. 

Moreover, "migrants and expats do not seem to get in touch as they have different biographies, different links to their country of origin, and obviously a totally different perception of Belgium and their future there". 

Indeed, most expats interviewed for the study saw their residence in Brussels as "strictly temporary". This intention to stay for a limited period of between several months and four years means many "refuse to make the effort to learn French or Dutch". Instead, their common language is English. 

As for the native Bruxellois, many see expats as "privileged" and are annoyed by the changes to the urban architecture and the increase in real-estate prices that their presence in the city entails, according to the study.

A 'globalised' city

"To be a little brutal, its citizens may like it or not, but Brussels is changing its face, and will continue doing so," the study's author, Emanuele Gatti, told EurActiv. "For economic and political reasons, Brussels has elected itself to the role of globalised city: it is no longer just the capital of Belgium."

Gatti predicts that the size of the expat community is likely to remain stable as "the major waves of expatriates have been absorbed by the city," but admits that a major event like Turkish EU entry "might imply a new big wave of immigration".

He spoke of the rise of "a new generation" of cosmopolitan, globalised, English-speaking Bruxellois who will "better integrate into a Brussels that will be more open [...] and less typically local".    

The relationship between Brussels and its expat community is likely to fall under the spotlight next year as Belgium assumes the EU's six-month rotating presidency in the latter half of 2010. 

"The most common behaviour of many expats in Brussels is somehow contradictory: they are eager about Brussels' dynamic cultural environment and the international community they can enjoy - that is to say, they like the fact of being abroad - but at the same time they tend to make no effort for a deeper and stronger integration into the city," Emanuele Gatti, the study's author, told EurActiv ahead of its launch today.

Gatti spoke of "two different geographic realities: Brussels as the capital of Belgium, with its typical architecture, its chocolate and its frites, and Brussels as the capital of Europe, with the institutional buildings, the after-hours and English as the primary language," explaining: "For many expats, it is only by chance that these two different realities coincide in the same place: they overlap, but remain separate."   

As for the native Bruxellois, "they are in a complex situation of double bind," he says, leading them to "reluctantly accept the presence of their international guests, without making an effort to mix with them". 

"Both communities, generally speaking, tend to remain separate," Gatti observes, meaning that "many people are missing the opportunity of a cultural exchange that might enlarge their horizon". 

"Speaking of an expat community [in Brussels] is quite an arbitrary choice, as the sense of community seems to be weak and not shared universally," concludes the Brussels Studies research. 

"Moreover, it seems to be based more on the fact of being in the same moving condition than on a sense of membership," it continues. 

Speaking at a gathering of Brussels stakeholders in April, Alain Deneef, coordinator of the Brussels Citizens' Forum, called on the upcoming Belgian EU Presidency to promote Brussels as a "real" capital of Europe. He said Brussels must work harder to fully integrate its working classes into the city's policies, particularly "l'Europe d'en bas" - citing residents of Turkish and Maghreb origins - and "l'Europe d'en haut" of expatriate Eurocrats and other professionals in EU circles. 

Deneef mentioned Brussels in the same bracket as other major multi-ethnic cultural centres, like London, Berlin and New York. He also compared the Belgian capital to Toledo in the Middle Ages and Sarajevo before the wars in the Balkans. 

Meanwhile, the 'European school' system put in place for the offspring of EU officials, of which Brussels boasts three, stands accused by Professor Philippe van Parijs of the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) of creating a socially-homogenous "apartheid regime" that could foster a feeling of superiority among the pupils. 

"It is not good for the offspring of the EU's bureaucracy to grow up in such a socially-homogeneous environment," the professor told EurActiv in an interview (EurActiv 17/02/09), continuing: "Nor is it good for a city like Brussels to have part of its school population creamed off by what amounts to an invidious apartheid regime."