Belgian Debate Research Articles

Legitimising detention and deportation of illegalised migrant families: reconstructing public controversies in Belgium and the Netherlands

ABSTRACT In Belgium and the Netherlands, the detention and deportation of illegalised migrant families with underage children has recently caused public controversy, resulting in the eruption of anti-deportation protests. This controversy is rooted in the unresolved tension for liberal states to protect children’s rights on the one hand, while limiting ‘unwanted migration’ on the other. Previous literature documents protest reactions to efforts to deport families with underage children, as well as general state tactics to legitimize such coercion. This paper instead centres the state’s legitimation work in response to societal protest and draws on publicly available material on two recent controversies: the Belgian debate on family detention and the determination of the child pardon in the Netherlands. For Belgium we highlight that the government frames detention as the ‘ultimate measure’, used only when less restrictive measures ‘failed’. For the Netherlands we show how the government reallocates political responsibility from elected officials to bureaucrats. Both strategies transform what is essentially a moral-political debate into a web of administrative procedures and discussions on legal conditions. The Belgian and Dutch governments thus invisibilize moral conflict by drawing it outside the realm of democratic politics, to the backstage of bureaucratic administration.

The Belgian debate on restitution since 2018

The Belgian debate on restitution since 2018

Medical Compromise and Its Limits: Religious Concerns and the Postmortem Caesarean Section in Nineteenth-Century Belgium.

Situated on the intersection of medicine and religion, postmortem caesarean sections exposed ideological boundaries in nineteenth-century medicine. According to clerical guidelines circulating in Catholic territories, Catholics who had not necessarily received medical training had to perform operations on deceased women in the absence of medical staff. Most doctors, on the other hand, objected to surgical interventions by unqualified Catholics. This article uses the Belgian debates about the postmortem caesarean section as a means to investigate methods of negotiation between liberal and Catholic doctors. The article analyzes, first, how doctors incorporated religious concerns such as baptism in the medical profession. Second, physicians' strategies to come to a compromise in ideologically diverse settings are examined. Overall, this article casts light on the dynamics of medical debate in times of both ideological rapprochement and polarization.

“God is the giver and taker of life”: Muslim beliefs and attitudes regarding assisted suicide and euthanasia

ABSTRACTIn the context of the Belgian debates on end-of-life care, the views of Muslims remain understudied. The aim of this article is twofold. First, we seek to document the relation between contemporary normative Muslim ideas on assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia on the one hand and real-world views and attitudes of Muslims living in Belgium on the other hand. Second, we aim to identify whether a shift is observable in the views and attitudes regarding active termination of life between first- and second-generation Muslims. We have observed that when dealing with these bioethical issues, both first- and second-generation Muslims adopt a theological line of reasoning similar to the one that can be found in normative Islamic views. We have found an absolute rejection of every act that deliberately terminates life, based upon the unconditional belief in an afterlife and in God's sovereign power over life and death.

Between quality of life and hope. Attitudes and beliefs of Muslim women toward withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatments.

The technological advances in medicine, including prolongation of life, have constituted several dilemmas at the end of life. In the context of the Belgian debates on end-of-life care, the views of Muslim women remain understudied. The aim of this article is fourfold. First, we seek to describe the beliefs and attitudes of middle-aged and elderly Moroccan Muslim women toward withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatments. Second, we aim to identify whether differences are observable among middle-aged and elderly women's attitudes toward withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatments. Third, we aim to explore the role of religion in their attitudes. Fourth, we seek to document how our results are related to normative Islamic literature. Qualitative empirical research was conducted with a sample of middle-aged and elderly Moroccan Muslim women (n = 30) living in Antwerp (Belgium) and with experts in the field (n = 15). We found an unconditional belief in God's sovereign power over the domain of life and death (cf. determined lifespan by God) and in God's almightiness (cf. belief in a miracle). However, we also found a tolerant attitude, mainly among our middle-aged participants, toward withholding and withdrawing (treatment) based on theological, eschatological, financial and quality of life arguments. Our study reveals that religious beliefs and worldviews have a great impact on the ethical attitudes toward end-of-life issues. We found divergent positions toward withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatments, reflecting the lines of reasoning found in normative Islamic literature. In our interviews, theological and eschatological notions emerged as well as financial and quality of life arguments.

The Victory of National Interest: Debates on the Belgian Forced Return Policy, 1998–2013

Based on the 1951 Refugee Convention, persons who have left their country ‘owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion’ are entitled to protection. The principle of non-refoulement provides that ‘no country shall expel or return a refugee against his or her will, in any manner whatsoever, to a territory where he or she fears threats to life or freedom’. 1 Following the increasing numbers of asylum seekers in the 1990s, host countries began to apply the Refugee Convention criteria more strictly and refused a growing number of applicants. 2 Since the summer of 2015 Europe has found itself in the middle of what is described as a ‘refugee crisis’. The crisis has brought debates about asylum, borders and return policies to the centre of the public and political conversation. A growing portion of society has called for a stricter asylum policy. This article will argue that even before this latest ‘refugee crisis’ discourses on asylum were becoming more restrictive, with a growing focus on return rather than protection. It will also show that the debates on asylum keep moving away from the definition provided in the 1951 Refugee Convention. It will do so by comparing the Belgian debates on forced return – and on asylum in general, which is inseparably connected to the subject – in the media and parliament during two periods: 1998–2001 and 2011–2013. 3 In the first section, we will elaborate on the theoretical framework of the analysis, paying attention to relevant concepts and secondary literature, as well as to the research questions and methodology. We will then discuss the most important empirical data on the debates’ topics and stances. In a third and final section, the major shifts in the debates will be analysed.

A Blend of Romanism and Germanism: Experimental Science Instruction in Belgian State Secondary Education, 1880–1914

A case study of secondary experimental science instruction in Belgium demonstrates the importance of cross-national communication in the study of science education. Belgian secondary science education in the years 1880–1914 had a clear internationalist dimension. French and German influences turn out to have been essential, stimulated by the fact that Belgium, as a result of its geographical position, considered itself as the centre of scientific relations between France and Germany, and as actually strengthened by its linguistic and cultural dualism in this regard. This pursuit of internationalist nationalism also affected the configuration of chemistry and physics as experimental courses at Belgian Royal State Schools, although the years preceding WWI are usually characterized as a period of rising nationalism in science, with countries such as Germany and France as prominent actors. To what extent did France and Germany influence Belgian debates on science education, science teachers’ training, the use of textbooks, and the instalment of school laboratories and teaching collections?

Sterven voor Sarajevo ? : De Joegoslavische kwestie in de Belgische politiek, 1991-1995

This article deals with the question why the war in Yugoslavia (1991-1 995) was hardly an issue in Belgian politics and society. We analyze how the conflict was framed in the newspapers, by opinion-leaders and by the peace movement. We also reconstruct the parliamentary debate: what parliamentary initiatives were taken and which framing of the conflict dominated the discussions. We conclude that the Belgian debate was largely dominated by the realist frame. This was probably a result of the presence of Belgian UN-soldiers in the conflict-zone, of the fact that the peace movement was divided and concentrated on other issues, and of the fact that the interventionist frame was claimed by the extreme rightwing Vlaams Blok party.

Waarom polemisering?: het parlementaire debat over lokaal kiesrecht voor vreemdelingen in Nederland en België in de jaren zeventig en tachtig

In the seventies and eighties there was ardent parliamentary debate over local enfranchisement of foreign residents in both Belgium and the Netherlands. When comparing both debates, it is striking that in the Netherlands there was an explicit consensus created not to polarise regarding the issue (thus keeping the ideas of the extreme-rightwing parties out of the debate), while in Belgium there was polarisation, In this way stances that could legitimise or strengthen (latent) racism and ethnocentrism were consciously avoided in the Dutch debate, while the Belgian debate was partly transformed into an electoral struggle over the anti-immigrant vote. This had a crucial effect on the process of formation of discourse coalitions leading to the respective policies of both countries. I formulate a tentative explanation of how the divergent developments of polarisation around the enfranchisement issue can be understood, by pointing out the indirect (discursive) influence of the colonial history and its relations to ideas on national identity.

De nieuwe sociale kwestie gewikt en gewogen: een kritische analyse van een academisch modebegrip

The past few years we have witnessed a proliferation of the New Social Question concept, sometimes referring to very different points of view. The article tries to take stock of the Belgian debate on the New Social Question and, more specifically, seeks to clarify the conceptual validity of the different perspectives at hand. These perspectives are questioned on their face-validity and on their level of theoretical congruence. This results in the elimination of some. Taking Rosanvallon’s notion of increased predictability of social risk as its core, the author argues for a more limited interpretation of the New Social Question. While recognizing the academic relevance of such a concise concept, the article concludes with a list of questions to be adressed in order to clarify and strengthen the concept.