The impact of mobility and migration on the identity-constructing policy in Brussels

For Brussels, this resulted in a complex model of dual bilingualism with two language communities and a situation of partial power-sharing. Since then, however, Brussels has been subject to a diversified form of migration which has led to the current situation in which half of the population has non-Belgian roots. This results in a highly multilingual and multicultural environment.

However, this identity-constructing policy based upon the two traditional language groups no longer meets the expectations of this diverse population. This chapter focuses on the confrontation between top-down identity-constructing bilingual policy and the framing of the political debate, on the one hand, and the sense of belonging in a multilingual and multicultural setting, on the other.