LL-L "Sociology" 2004.01.22 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 22.JAN.2004 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: LL-L "Sociology" 2004.01.22 (02) [E]

> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Sociology
>
> ..... but is this current
> trend in Brussels not a boon of sorts for Flemish, aside from the fact
that
> it is currently hard to get into Flemish schools?  For a long time now the
> position of Flemish has been eroding in Brussels.  I personally know
people
> in and from Brussels who are of "Flemish" background and elect to be
French
> speakers.  This includes people who grew up speaking "Flemish."   Whatever
> is behind this latest trend (and I suspect there is a combination of
eroding
> educational standards and various elements of xenophobia, racism and
> anti-Islamic sentiments as are typical of virtually all such situations in
> Western Europe), is it not likely to reverse some of the erosion of
> "Flemish" in Brussels?
>
Some reflections Ron

1. The “Flemish”-feeling community may cover roughly 15 percent of the
voting citizens and 10 percent of the total population. I have no precise
figures, but I think this is a fairly good guess. “Dutch” may be more
significantly present in street noise during the week, since quite a lot of
federal services and company headquarters are situated downtown (attracting
many commuters, plugging up all major roads or being squeezed as sardines in
public traffic coaches).

The federal school system has been regionalized towards the communities
about 20 years ago. If the Flemish community eventually covers 15% percent
of the urban school capacity, demand for 20% already causes significant
problems, without this predicting an overall cultural flip-over on short
term.

2. A second dimension is the dimension of the school type. Belgian schools
are primarily belonging to:

- the state system (community schools, formerly federal, further provincial
schools, and municipal schools), ideologically neutral,

- and “free” schools (virtually all roman-catholic - I’m just aware of a
dozen of Jewish schools in Antwerp).

As a result of the “schoolpact”, dating of about 1958, free schools are
largely subsidized (salaries in full, buildings partially via cheap loans).
There is no tuition for attending free schools (at least for primary, ages
6-12, and middle, ages 12-18 school levels).

Although church attendance in the Belgian roman-catholic society dropped to
a few percent, attendance of free schools may be close to 60 percent.

An actual combative issue between the Flemish minister of education and the
catholic circuit momentarily is whether or not the roman-catholic circuit
has to take its share of the Muslim population. Some roman-catholic schools
already accept non-Catholics, on condition they respect the
school ideology, but a forced drain of Muslims to Catholic schools is
momentarily not acceptable for the Catholics.

3. For complicating things, although education is a “community” matter, some
related competences belong to the “region”, and one of the ministers of the
Brussels region was proposing recently to subsidize Roman Catholic schools
in full for expanding their infrastructure. (The odd thing is that the
region is eventually paying in full for buildings, which will finally belong
to the diocese)

(As a result of de-federalization, Brussels got it’s own “regional”
competence combined with overlapping competences by the “French” and the
“Flemish” “communities”)

4. Dutch has a strong position in the actual Belgium. Some factors that may
explain or illustrate:
- The quality of spoken Dutch in Belgium is improving, making it more
feasible for French speakers to learn some Dutch and use it. Unfortunately,
I think, the price we pay for that is a regression of our Flemish,
Brabantish and Limburgish dialects)
- The industrial, and work giving, center moved from South to North. As a
result, quite some industrial headquarters downtown Brussels switched from
French into Dutch (or eventually English).
- Talking Dutch downtown Brussels was considered impolite or politically
provocative about 50 years ago. That’s no longer the case. The quality of
spoken French by Flemish youngsters is also in rapid regression, and as a
result, when in Brussels, they don’t speak French because they can’t.
- Politically there has been a switch since this government toke over about
3 years ago. Walloon ministers of the federal government express themselves
in Dutch on Flemish TV. The quality of their Dutch is often not very good,
but them doing that was completely unthinkable a couple of years ago

5. The political polarization French-Walloon versus Dutch-Flemish is
decreasing.

Some elements: the “Walen buiten” actions of 1965-1975 (kicking the French
language faculties out of the city of Leuven to Louvain-la-Neuve in the
prairies in the South of Wavre) are digested.

For the “municipalities with facilities” (some municipalities along the
language border with some administrative protection for the language
minority) the tension dropped since the most sensible of those
municipalities, Voeren, got a Flemish political majority. (Thanks to the
votes of the immigrants from the Netherlands)

So most people do not reject the other’s language anymore because of an
almost inborn antipathy.

6. Back to the Flemish schools in Brussels.

Since there is lack of capacity in Flemish schools downtown Brussels, one is
seeking for a fair selection system.

I don’t think anyone wants to go back to the system of the sixties, when
inspector-spies had to observe households, for determining to what schools
(in what language) kids should go. The French-adherents got their “liberté
du père de famille”, and I think many people still have a bad taste of the
old procedure of investigating family behavior (even with a reversed
movement: in the past for forcing Flemish kids toward Flemish schools, now
eventually or keeping French kids out of Flemish schools)

A system of accepting kids in order of application was modified recently,
because kids were already filed, up to 5 years ahead. The order of
application was maintained, but applications for 2004-2005 could only be
filed, if I remember well, from the 4th of January of this year on. So, a
couple of weeks ago,  quite some people queued (quite some in vain) the
whole night at school gates (in the winter).

The Flemish and Brussels governments have incentive programs for getting
Flemish people relocated to the center of Brussels. A typical case, that got
5 columns in “Het Belang van Limburg” on Jan 15, is that of a fellow from
Tongeren, who apparently couldn’t resist the temptation. They moved to
Brussels 2 years ago. This year these people could not get a place in a
day-care centre close-by for their little kids, so they have to drive 2
hours daily in the downtown labyrinth for just bringing the kids to a centre
where they still could get a place.

The Flemish minister of Education, Marleen Vanderpoorten, is momentarily
under severe pressure for adjusting the system, for making it possible that
kids of a very same family, with one kid at a certain school, get priority
for the other kids on that same school. Others are pressing rather the
Brussels minister of Education, Guy Vanhengel, who has also some competences
for the matter.

7. The French school system suffered from week-long strikes, about 3 years
ago. Salary raises of their teachers could be finally funded, as a result of
a federal agreement in combination with an agreement between the Walloon
region and the French community for transferring some funds. I think those
actions also made some parents opting for Flemish schools.

8. And then there are the immigrants. For most North-Africans the French
system may be a natural choice, since they come from a multi lingual
environment, with French, Berber-dialects and Arab.

Since we have high unemployment rates in this country, these people
unfortunately suffer the most of lack of jobs. This brings quite a lot of
their youngsters in the street all day, and creates unsafe feelings.
I do some projects in the area from time to time, and I must say, the
cultural integration still has a way to go. An example: a yearly trip to
Morocco in the summer holidays is a must for quite some people, but having
this trip planned in the company’s collective holiday period gives quite
some problems, incidents, … etc., contributing to the reluctance in
companies for hiring these fellows.

Further, as a result of international events, as well as pushed by some
local radical movements, quite some youngsters are profiling themselves in a
fundamentalist way.
This results in further polarization.

This all may partially explain a drain of kids from French families to
Flemish schools.
This is not limited to Belgians. I saw quite some Italians in Brussels put
their kids on Flemish Don Bosco technical schools, but it is not clear to me
whether this had to do with the language or rather with religion.

9. The acceptance of Dutch is not limited to Brussels. One sees nowadays
Walloon burgomasters (of Dinant, Vresse in the extreme South, …) speak
fairly good Dutch on Flemish TV. Even in the North of France some efforts
are done. In the Auchan mall in Roncq (between Lille and Tourcoing) cash
girls have been learning some elementary Dutch. Roncq is not in the Flemish,
but in the Picard dialect area. But when you look at the license plates on
the parking, 20 to 30 percent are Belgian.

10. Concluding for Brussels: there is indeed a switch. However it is
marginal. Dutch is fairly well accepted in our capital nowadays. But I do
not believe this will turn the 19 municipalities of the capital region back
to a homogeneous Dutch-language society (what they never have been, they
were Brabantish-speaking)

Regards,
Roger

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