The Reception of Newcomer Migrants in Brussels. The Development of a New Field of Governance

• In Event: 469 - Section on International Migration Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 16. Migration, Development, and Nation Building

Abstract

In this paper, I explain how immigrant newcomers are received in practice in the multi-institutional and bilingual city of Brussels since the 1960s. More specifically, I argue that the ways in which newcomers are dealt with depend on the predominant institutional and ideological conditions of each time period. From a cultural sociological vantage point, I explain how the development of a new field of governance came about.
I identify three historical phases in the emergence of the new field: the start-up, the development and the institutionalization phase. Small local initiatives gradually evolved into state structures and their approach to newcomer migrants changed with it. While in the beginning small local reception initiatives saw newcomer migrants as victims of a national system that did not account for them, in the later phases bigger state-funded agencies increasingly held them accountable for their own actions (moral individualism).
Furthermore, each phase is related to a specific political identity-building project. From the 80ties onwards two separate governments - a Flemish and a Francophone - became responsible for the matter of newcomer reception and replaced the unitary national government that operated in Brussels before. As a consequence, moral individualism became interpreted and practiced differently in the same city. The Flemish state chose a regional cultural project focusing on teaching newcomers Flemish norms and values, the Francophone state opted in contrast for an urban linguistic project concentrating on teaching newcomers French.

Author

• Eva Swyngedouw, University of Chicago