Belgium: Brussels

Abstract

In view of the great number of international organizations and companies that have their seats in the capital of Belgium, it is little wonder that Brussels considers itself to be the capital of Europe. Major organizations such as the European Union and NATO give Brussels a place on the map of the world that is larger than would be expected from the physical size of the city. The composition of its population reflects the international orientation of the city. On 1 January 1995, 30 per cent of the population were of a foreign nationality. Moreover, part of the Belgian population has obtained that nationality only recently after successfully completing a naturalization procedure. Compared to the other cities in this study we can see a high degree of heterogeneity in the (immigrant) population. On the one hand there is a substantial presence of immigrants from the former colonial territories, of guest workers from Mediterranean countries who have been reunited with their families in the course of time, and of asylum seekers. This is a pattern that is quite commonly found in Europe. On the other hand, and this is a major difference from the other cities, there is extensive immigration by highly-skilled, highly-educated persons, which is connected with the presence of many international organizations. The result is that the poorly educated Portuguese guest workers who arrived in Brussels in the sixties coexist in the statistics with highly-educated, recently arrived officials who represent Portugal in the EU.