Belgian Citizenship: Managing Linguistic, Regional, and Economic Demands

Abstract

Until 1830-1831, there was no Belgian nation-state and thus no political framework for national citizenship. The 1830-1831 Belgian laws on nationality were extremely restrictive, mostly based on the traditional concept of jus sanguinis , paternity, and familial national unity. In Belgium, the principle of equality inherent in citizenship has today overcome the past restriction of citizens rights vis- á -vis the poor, women voting rights (1948), and maternal transmission of citizenship (1984). Citizenship has become exclusive again regarding aliens. With a workforce including 10% aliens, Belgium has renewed its xenophobic sentiments and declared strict immigrant regulation to be elemental to the nation. The creation of a Belgian federation was the result of a process of devolution of a once unitary state, in which several forces succeeded in transferring competencies to newly created sub-states. The reforms are the result of conflicts and diverging perceptions between the major language groups, the Dutch and Francophone speakers. European Union policy is a constant challenge to consensus and democracy. However, pessimism regarding the capacity of Belgian consensus could be seriously questioned when one looks to the unique historical challenge of Belgium as it achieved local, regional and national independence, based on consensus. The Welfare State, the codetermination of the workers, and the labor-management dialogues have been a challenge to democracy in industrial and bi-polar countries such as Belgium. Nevertheless, the most challenging conflict has been the linguistic/cultural/ethnic problem. Thus the Belgian historical consensus and the two levels of citizenship, for the Flemings and the Walloons, federal and regional/communitarian, seems to have prepared these populations to share a dual allegiance, to Europe and to their region/community.