| Description |
With its linguistic divide between French- and Dutch-speaking
communities and its intricate binational institutional architecture,
Brussels is a strategic research site to study the limits of prevailing
national integration paradigms and the emergence of post- or transnational
integration patterns. In terms of institutional complexity, social
polarization, and spatial segregation, Brussels can be defined
as a 'least national case' compared to other multicultural cities
in Western Europe - 'national' in the normative sense of an integrated
political community with a shared public culture and some measure
of social cohesion. The study develops and documents an Interactive
Integration Model, where minority patterns of adaptation on the
side of immigrants are closely linked to perceptions of public
acceptance in the host society. Building on systematic analyses
of integration processes among immigrants and nationals in Brussels,
old and new findings will be drawn together thematically, around
central cultural and political issues. Whenever possible, emerging
patterns of integration in the context of Brussels will be replicated
cross-nationally by linking up with a companion study among immigrants
and their Dutch hosts in Rotterdam.
More concretely, three thematic research questions are guiding
the systematic comparison of integration processes across cases
(immigrant and host communities) and contexts (multicultural cities).
The first question examines immigrant and host perspectives on
cultural diversity and intercultural relations in multicultural
cities. The second question refers to issues of citizenship and
political rights and explores immigrant and host perceptions of
fairness with regard to allocation and representation problems
in a multicultural city. The last question is concerned with the
social construction and political mobilization of ethnic, national
and transnational identities among immigrants and nationals in
a multilingual context.
This research project is a follow-up study of the 'Minorities
in Brussels' survey financed by the Government of Brussels
Capital Region (BCR).}
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