Transition or Consolidation? The Role of Inner-City Neighbourhoods in the Integration of Immigrants in Brussels, Belgium

Abstract

AbstractErnest Burgess’ transition zone has become a classical concept in urban sociology and geography. Because of the development of inner-city working-class neighbourhoods in the nineteenth century and an unfettered suburbanisation process after the Second World War, Brussels shares similarities with the American city that Burgess was contemplating: a poor inner city and rich suburbs. The inner city has continuously played the role of arrival place for lower class newcomers and is often considered as a transition zone, where the next wave of newcomers pushes the previous one in the adjacent concentric zone. This conception of the city implies that the more people live away from the city centre, the more they are integrated in the urban community and vice versa. This chapter develops a close examination of social and economic life in these Brussels neighbourhoods. It starts with an overview of the concept of transition zone, examines immigration and residential mobility patterns in the city and then focuses on immigration, residential mobility, economic activities and social networks in one of these neighbourhoods, the district of Kuregem. Results shows that a large part of immigrants stays in the zone and develop opportunities for economic and social integration within these areas, hence consolidating these neighbourhoods into ethnic enclaves.KeywordsBrusselsHuman ecologyTransition zoneEthnic enclaveImmigrationResidential mobility