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Migrant Women in Belgium: Identity Versus Feminism

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Feminism and Migration

Part of the book series: International Perspectives on Migration ((IPMI,volume 1))

Abstract

For more than 60 years of post-war II migratory history, the sociological profiles, the social questions and the political stakes relating to the migrant women in Belgium have known deep transformations. This chapter identifies the feminist stakes of women migrant organisations and how their feminist claims have been ignored and reduced to identity claims. Based on the case of Brussels’ women migrant organisations, this chapter shows how women migrants contribute to fight for their equality and how the Belgian feminist movement started to include their demands. The main challenge of women migrants’ struggle is not only to show the universal patriarchal oppression but also how race and class impact on their social status.

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Notes

  1. 1.

     The most serious mining disaster in Belgium occurred in 1956 and resulted in the deaths of 262 men, of which 36 were Italian nationals (Morelli 2004, p. 211).

  2. 2.

     In this chapter, women migrants generally refer to women who migrated or descendants of migrants. Both may or may not hold Belgian citizenship.

  3. 3.

    Statistics clearly established the huge impact of Italian, Moroccan and Turkish fertility and ­birthrates on the increasing – population in Belgium. In the 1980s, while the Belgian population decreased (−4.1%), the migrants stemming from South Europe increased slightly (+0.7%), and Moroccan and Turkish population grew significantly (±30% and +20% respectively). During the same period, the average descendant of Belgian women was 1.4 children per woman, 1.2 for EU women, 4.6 for Moroccans and 3.6 for Turkish women (Eggerick et al. 2002, p. 32).

  4. 4.

    The women’s share vary according to ethnic groups.

  5. 5.

    On 1 January 2008, foreigners made up 9.11% of the 10,666,866 population. The foreign ­communities with the biggest presence in Belgium are Italians, French, Dutch, Moroccans, Spaniards, Turks and Germans. The foreigners represented 28.1% of the Brussels’ population, 9.3% of the Walloons and 5.8% of the Flemish. Since 1985, more than 600,000 foreigners have been naturalized and around 42.5% of foreign-born citizens were granted Belgian citizenship (SPF ETCS 2008, pp. 11–18).

  6. 6.

    In 1989, the first headscarf affair started in France when three pupils were expelled from a ­secondary school because they wore an Islamic headscarf that was considered as infringing secular and republican principles of the public school system (see Gaspard and Khosrokhavar 1995; Scott 2007). From that time, serveral host countries in Europe face similar controversies about the Muslim headscarf and religious insignia in schools and in other public spaces (Lorcerie 2005).

  7. 7.

    Self-organizations are supposed to be independent of the state. Until the 1980s foreigners did not have the right to create their own organizations. From the 1990s, regional governments (Flemish, Walloon and Brussels) have encouraged the self-organization of migrants and ethnic minorities in granting financial support. Religious communities are included in these kinds of organizations. Institutionalized associations are (and were) more linked to the political parties such as “Vie féminine”(Women’s Life, VF) and “Femmes Prévoyantes Socialistes” (Provident Socialist Women, FPS), which were respectively close to the Christian and Socialist parties, the workers movement, and the mutual benefit organizations (Christian Mutual Benefit and Socialist Mutual Benefit Society). These organizations benefit from the institutionalization of feminism from the mid 1980s. “Continuing education” associations are based on the cultural policy devoted to the working class which aims at promoting cultural and individual development through activities like reading and writing courses, social inclusion for popular, youth, and women’s movement.

  8. 8.

    The Belgian society is mainly divided into four structures: philosophical (religions and laymen), linguistic and cultural (Flemish, French and German communities), ideological (Christian, Liberal, Socialist parties) and social class (peasantry, middle class, working class) (Mabille 1986).

  9. 9.

    There were 11 women’s associations before the 1940s and 5 were founded after 1945 (Jacques 2009, p. 43).

  10. 10.

    The organization close to the Liberal Party remained a minority although they had famous ­activists such as Georgette Ciselet and Jane Brigode.

  11. 11.

    For example, the right to vote and to enter in all professions and occupations, the end of the legal incompetence of the spouse, or the abolition of regulations related to prostitution.

  12. 12.

    The strike triggered, on the one hand, the creation of the international Comity “Equal work for equal wage” which organized press releases and conferences to denounce women’s discrimination at work. On the other hand, it brought about a special meeting of the European Parliament in order to assess the application of the regulation of the Treaty of Rome related to wage equality between men and women (Coenen 1991).

  13. 13.

    Secularism and universalism are the fundamental beliefs of the Belgian (and international) ­workers socialist movement. Secularism was embraced in opposition to the Christian movement’s very strong influence at the end of the nineteenth century.Universalism supposes that there is no difference between workers and that they must be treated as equals. Any differences (for example sex and ethnicity) are considered as factors of fragmentation of the movement (Jefferys and Ouali 2007, p. 408).

  14. 14.

    A bilateral agreement on family law was signed in 1991 between Belgium and Morocco which recognized divorce by repudiation in the Belgian legal system.

  15. 15.

    This concept is more common in Belgium as well as in French-speaking countries than ­multiculturalism. Following the work of Carmel Camilleri and Margalit Cohen-Emerique (1989), interculturality in Belgium supposes to question identity of all stakeholders of the ­relationship and not of ethnic minorities only. Furthermore, among scholars, multiculturalism is often linked to the American model of society that is seen as fragmented, where communities coexist rather than mix.

  16. 16.

    FPS and members of socialist organizations were, in general, from the white majority.

  17. 17.

    Statement in En Marche (2007), the Christian Mutual Benefit Society Journal (Robert 2007).

  18. 18.

    COLFEN or Collectif Femmes en noir contre les centres fermés et les expulsions (Collective Women in Black against centre of retention and deportation) was created in 1998 after the death of Semira Adamu, a victim of police violence. Until June 2009 COLFEN devoted its tasks to the ­support of asylum seekers and undocumented migrant women seeking regularization of status and, in particular, for the recognition of rights to women victims of persecutions and discrimination based on sex (COLFEN 2006).

  19. 19.

    Commission du dialogue interculturel provided recommendations on different aspects of the lives of migrant and ethnic minorities in Belgian society. The Commission suggested, among ­others, to improve women’s access to information about civil rights, particularly the rules ­concerning mariage, divorce and child custody. The Commission pleaded to consider children and ­grandchildren as full-fledged citizens (Delruelle and Torfs 2005).

  20. 20.

    Belgium is a federal state which consists of the federal government and four regional governments (Flemish, French, Brussels and German).

  21. 21.

    Statement of the President of the association, Hariyé Balci (1988).

  22. 22.

    In 2001, the poverty threshold of the Belgian population (less then 777 € a month) was between 9.6% and 10.8%, while those of Turkish and Moroccan ethnic minorities were between 51.1% and 66.7% and 47% and 64%, respectively (Van Robaeys and Perrin 2006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Sociologie, Centre METICES-Genre et Migration, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Avenue Jeanne 44, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Nouria Ouali Ph.D.

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  1. Nouria Ouali Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Nouria Ouali Ph.D. .

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  1. , Department of Women and Gender Studies, University of Lethbridge, University Drive 4401, Lethbridge, T1K 3M4, Alberta, Canada

    Glenda Tibe Bonifacio

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Ouali, N. (2012). Migrant Women in Belgium: Identity Versus Feminism. In: Bonifacio, G. (eds) Feminism and Migration. International Perspectives on Migration, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2831-8_6

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