Community Of Belgium Research Articles

Partner Choices in Long Established Migrant Communities in Belgium

This paper aims to shed light on the partner choices of Moroccan, Turkish, Congolese, and Algerian migrants in Belgium. Three partner choices are distinguished: marrying a partner from the country of origin (partner migration), marrying a local co-ethnic partner, and establishing a mixed marriage. We focused on the role of migration history and transnational links, culture (religion, language), skin colour and structural characteristics of the district migrants live in (mainly community size) to gain further insight into the partner choices of migrants in Belgium. Our data comprise an extraction of the Belgian national register (2001-2008) and focus on first marriages among first, 1.5, and second generation migrants of Moroccan, Turkish, Algerian, and Congolese origin (N=52,142). We apply a multinomial logistic multilevel design to simultaneously incorporate individual and contextual effects at the district level. The main conclusion from this paper is that the partner selection pattern in early 21st century Belgian society still bears the traces of the starting conditions that migrant groups experienced when they first entered the country. While this continuity is important to understand the situation citizens with a migrant origin have to deal with today, it does not make change impossible. In fact, for the Turkish and Moroccan group, research recently showed a quite strong decline in transnational marriages and a modest increase in mixed marriages. These are indications that after 50 years of migration a transition towards full inclusion in Belgian society is not beyond reach. The conditions analysed in this paper, namely the strength of transnational networks, the cultural boundaries and the ethnic community size, may help to understand why this inclusion takes such a long period of time.

Implementing Community-based Participatory Research in the study of substance use and service utilisation in Eastern European and Turkish communities in Belgium

Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) is an effective strategy to promote action research regarding health and substance use issues. The London-based Centre for Ethnicity and Health’s CBPR model was replicated in Belgium to study substance use and service utilisation in Bulgarian, Slovakian and Turkish communities in the city of Ghent. This article focuses on the implementation of the CBPR model, challenges and adaptions linked to the Belgian context. In this paper, we describe the study design and actors involved, namely (1) community organisations, (2) the community advisory board and (3) community researchers. Furthermore, we focus on the challenges and pitfalls of the CBPR method and its implications, including (1) community collaboration, (2) co-ethnic researchers, (3) characteristics of the respondents and (4) empowerment of the respective communities. We conclude by discussing potential pathways for future CBPR in the field of substance use and service utilisation among migrants and ethnic minorities.

Feeling (Dis)Connected

While most research on the e-diaspora focuses on connections within heterosexual families and communities, this paper explores the transnational connections and digital media uses of LGBTQ migrants. Based on semi-structured interviews with 23 LGBTQs living in Belgium, two groups are distinguished: voluntary migrants, who chose to move, and forced migrants, who (felt they) had to leave their country because of their sexual orientation. Comparing their familial and ethno-cultural connections, it becomes clear that both groups – for varying reasons and to varying degrees – feel disconnected from their countries of origin, families, and ethno-cultural communities in Belgium. For all participants, digital media are a key tool to maintain some connections, but particularly for the forced migrants ‘context collapse' on social media leads to a sense of insecurity. Overall, this research illustrates the importance of intersecting variables in research on the e-diaspora, as well as the impact of ‘offline' legal and material conditions on online media uses.

Regional inequality in reading performance: an exploration in Belgium

ABSTRACTIn the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment, the Flemish community of Belgium outscored its French community in reading, with low achievers accounting for a large proportion of the score gaps. In this study, between-community comparisons based on the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method showed that the Flemish community benefits largely from its policies and practices of giving schools relative autonomy in resource allocation, promoting good student conduct, and decreasing grade retention. Between-community comparisons using the Juhn-Murphy-Pierce decomposition method showed that compared to their Flemish peers in the same percentile, low achievers in the French community are hindered more by their relatively low grade level; disadvantageous school economic, social, and cultural composition; and negative school supportive climate while medium and high achievers benefit more from their advantageous school economic, social, and cultural composition; positive supportive climate; and high proportion of qualified teachers in schools.

Migrant associations as alternative jobs providers: Experience of Turkish and sub-Saharan communities in Belgium

It can be said that Belgian labour market has been challenged since the 1970s due to changing economic landscape. The two major drivers for change were the deindustrialization and globalization. For some, these two drivers have brought a perceptible deterioration of working conditions and pay. In general, foreign workers are among the first to be affected from such changes. Their temporary residence status, unrecognized qualifications, limited language skills and lack of access to the social networks of the native-born Belgians make them particularly disadvantaged in the labour market. In order to overcome these obstacles, migrant communities have developed various, more or less effective, measures. This paper discusses the role of migrant associations in economic integration among the Turkish and the sub-Saharan communities residing in Belgium. Particular emphasis is made on the contribution of the community’s social capital in the process of transferring knowledge, financial and material means and professional networks.

The relation between ethnic diversity and fear of crime: An analysis of police records and survey data in Belgian communities

In the framework of intergroup threat theory, it is routinely assumed that the presence of immigrant groups in a local community could contribute to fear of crime among the majority population. This could be explained by a direct relation between ethnic diversity and some forms of crime, but it can also be expected that stereotypes toward specific groups of the population contribute to a perception of group threat. In this article it is assessed how the real and perceived presence of immigrant groups and the occurrence of criminal acts are related to fear of crime. The analysis is based on a combination of newly available official police records and survey data for local municipalities in Belgium. The results show there is no significant relation between reported crime and fear of crime. The community level of ethnic diversity is, however, significantly related to fear of crime. The findings suggest that applications of group threat theory should not only focus on economic and cultural threat, but also on the perceived impact of diversity on crime and safety.

Capacity building through cross-sector partnerships: a multiple case study of a sport program in disadvantaged communities in Belgium.

BackgroundRecent research has illustrated the need for cross-sector partnerships to tackle multidimensional problems such as health inequalities and sport and physical activity promotion. Capacity building is based on partnerships and has demonstrated effectiveness in tackling these multidimensional problems. This study aims to explain how cross-sector partnerships build capacity at the practitioner, organisational and partnership levels. The subject of this study is a community sport program (CSP) that aims to increase sport participation rates and physical activity levels.MethodsThe study examined multiple cases in four disadvantaged communities in Antwerp, Belgium where the CSP was implemented. Forty-four face-to-face interviews were held with leaders from sport, social, health, culture and youth organisations that collaborated with the CSP.ResultsThirteen elements of cross-sector partnerships were identified as critical to building capacity at each of the different levels. These include: process evaluation, trust, mutuality, policy support, partner complementarity and fit, diversity of activities and period of collaboration-time. Trust in turn was fostered by a longer period of collaboration-time, better personal contact, clearer coordination and an external focus. Policy support was developed by support of partners and establishing clear metrics of success.ConclusionInsight into the key elements of cross-sector partnerships that build capacity is given and several practical recommendations are suggested for practitioners and policy makers.

Downward trends in the prevalence of childhood overweight in two pilot towns taking part in the VIASANO community-based programme in Belgium: data from a national school health monitoring system.

SummaryBackgroundMultilevel approaches involving environmental strategies are considered to be good practice to help reduce the prevalence of childhood overweight.ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of VIASANO, a community‐based programme using the EPODE methodology, on the prevalence of overweight in two pilot towns in Belgium.MethodsWe analysed data from a national school health monitoring system to compare changes in the prevalence of overweight and obesity over a 3‐year period (2007–2010) in children aged 3–4 and 5–6 years in the pilot towns with those of children of the same ages from the whole French‐speaking community of Belgium. Heights and weights of all participants were measured by trained school nurses using a standardized method.ResultsThe prevalence of overweight (−2.1%) and overweight + obesity (−2.4%) decreased in the pilot towns, but remained stable in the comparison population (+0.1% and +0.2%, respectively). After adjustment for lack of homogeneity between the study populations, there was a trend towards a decrease in overweight (P = 0.054) and overweight + obesity (P = 0.058) in the pilot towns compared with the general population.ConclusionsThese results suggest that a community‐based programme, such as VIASANO, may be a promising strategy for reducing the prevalence of childhood overweight even over a short period of time.

Virtuous villages and sinful cities? A spatial analysis into the effects of community characteristics on turnout and blank/invalid voting in local elections in Belgium 2006–2012

Does the size of a community influence political participation? Using spatial analysis, we investigate this question for the absolute level and change in local electoral turnout and invalid voting, using municipality-level data (N=588) from the 2006 and 2012 local elections in Belgium. The population size of a community has a clear negative effect on political participation, while area size matters far less and has a positive association. Compulsory voting in Belgium keeps young people showing up at elections, but with a higher likelihood of spoiling their vote. One of the main negative influences on participation is computer voting instead of paper and pencil ballots. Clear differences between the language communities in Belgium remain, after controlling for other community variables.

Physical activity promotion in a community based programme to reduce overweight prevalence in Belgian children

Introduction Specific actions to promote physical activity (PA) and healthy food (HF) are taken in a community-based program (CBP) named VIASANO, aimed at reducing overweight prevalence in Belgian children. A cross sectional study has been undertaken to assess the outcome of this CBP by comparing the trends of overweight prevalence in two participating pilot towns with those in a reference population. Methods Viasano, which uses the EPODE methodology [1] , consists of the concerted action of the local political authority and a local project manager under the supervision of a national coordination team and a scientific counselling board. Over a 3-year period (2007–2010), in two pilot towns of Viasano, a total of 31 actions targeted at PA were launched compared with 86 actions on PA + HF and 107 actions on HF alone. Various types of PA were promoted at several levels: whole families, schools, youth clubs, sport facilities, etc. Meanwhile, the trends in BMI data measured at school using standardized methods were compared in 3–4 and 5–6 year old children from these two pilot towns (n = 1300 in 2007 and 1484 in 2010) and in same age children from the whole French speaking community of Belgium. Results The prevalence of overweight (including obesity) decreased in the pilot towns (–2.2%) while it remained stable in the reference population (+0.2%). After adjustment for lack of homogeneity between the two study populations, there was a clear trend towards a decrease of overweight in the pilot towns vs. the reference population (P = 0.058). Conclusion Specific actions to promote PA are an important component of Viasano and these results suggest that such a CBP combining actions on food and physical activity may contribute to containing the prevalence of childhood overweight even over a short period of time.

Geographies of migration and relatedness: transmigrancy in open transnational adoptive parenting

Current transnational adoptive parenting is characterized by ambiguous practices of (1) discursively distancing adoptive children from immigrants, while (2) symbolically or actually reconnecting newly constituted families to children's birth countries through charity and culture work. This ambiguity reveals the ubiquity of contradictory and essentialist understandings of categories of familial and national belonging. However, adoptive parents’ strategies for accommodating their children's sense of belonging may also open up space for rethinking care and family building in transnational contexts. Using the case of a Belgian family who adopted a 12-year-old girl from Ethiopia, decided to maintain strong connections with the child's biological family, engage in charity work in Ethiopia and forge strong ties with immigrant communities in Belgium, the article explores how the concept of ‘transmigration’ may further our understanding of identity configurations within adoptive families. Furthermore, this particular case of ‘open’ transnational adoptive parenting testifies to adoptive parents’ efforts to escape from essentialist and exclusionary frameworks and create counter-spaces of multiplicity and transmigrancy in a context of severe social and economic inequality.

Towards a comprehensive research design for studying integrated care

Given that integrated care includes many different aspects, this paper seeks to design a comprehensive research approach and explains how this approach is applied in the CORTEXS research project on integrated care in the Flemish Community in Belgium. A systemic view on integrated care is translated into a multi-level, multi-disciplinary, multi-method and multi-stakeholder research design. A phased approach of taxonomy development and literature review, comparative case studies, social lab activities and valorisation initiatives is devised in order to link fundamental research with strategic valorisation of the research results. While this innovative comprehensiveness is seen as a major strength, it is acknowledged that the research design comes with certain risks that need to be tackled.

Pushing the Boundaries: Responses to Ethnic Conformity Pressure in Two Turkish Communities in Belgium

Previous research has demonstrated that ethnic communities try to maintain ethnic boundaries through group pressure to conform to premigration cultural patterns, which mainly happens indirectly through social control. So far however, little attention has been given to how group members respond to this indirect ethnic conformity pressure, as well as to the factors that shape these responses. Drawing on in-depth interviews with second- and third-generation Turkish Belgians, we examine and explain different responses to ethnic conformity pressure and link these to ethno-cultural change and boundary change. We distinguish three negotiation strategies, namely conformity, creativity and disregard, and find that the choice for a particular strategy is first and foremost shaped by the agent’s gender, their embeddedness in the Turkish community, and the availability of an alternative support network, both of which are shaped by exclusion in the larger society. In addition, also the severity of the norm violation, the social structure of the community and parental expectations play a role. Findings are interpreted in terms of ethnic boundary dynamics, and implications for ethno-cultural change are discussed.

Comparing Compositional Effects in Two Education Systems: The Case of the Belgian Communities

ABSTRACTThe Belgian educational field includes separate educational systems reflecting the division of the country into linguistic communities. Even if the French-speaking and the Dutch-speaking communities keep sharing important similarities in terms of funding rules and structures, they present a huge gap between their respective pupils’ achievement. The Belgian educational systems are then characterized by high levels of segregation; this paper aims to model the potential differential effect of school composition on pupils’ achievement. Multilevel models are consequently tested on the Programme for International Student Assessment 2009 data (7184 respondents in 236 schools). Our results suggest that the position of pupils in the educational system still has a deep influence in a system that functions as a quasi-market and where grade repetition and tracking are widely used. Our analysis also confirms that academic and socio-economic compositions have an extra negative effect on pupils’ achievement.

Evaluation of the Oncogenic Human Papillomavirus DNA Test with Liquid-Based Cytology in Primary Cervical Cancer Screening and the Importance of the ASC/SIL Ratio: A Belgian Study

Objectives. In Belgium, very few studies have focused on cervical high-risk human papillomaviruses (hrHPV) prevalence and the relationship between HPV and cervical cytological abnormalities. The aim of this study was to investigate hrHPV prevalence and its relationship with cytological screening and histological results in the French-speaking community in Belgium (Brussels and Wallonia). Methods. A total of 58,265 liquid-based cytology tests were performed during this period. All cases of ASC-US, ASC-H, LSIL, and HSIL were tested by Hybrid Capture 2 for hrHPV screening. Results. The prevalence of cytological abnormalities was 3.1% for ASC-US, 0.3% for ASC-H, 1.5% for LSIL, and 0.3% for HSIL. The frequency of hrHPV infection was 47% in ASC-US, 90% in ASC-H, 86% in LSIL, and 98.4% in HSIL. CIN 2+ lesions were found in 12.2% of smears with an ASC-US result, in 54% of smears with an ASC-H result, in 12.5% of smears with a LSIL result, and in 89.3% of smears with a HSIL result. The ASC/SIL ratio was 1.9%. Conclusions. This study provides a good representation of cytological abnormalities and HPV status in patients living in Belgium's French-speaking community. The prevalence in our study was similar to that derived from meta-analyses of European studies. Our ASC/SIL ratio was 1.9%, being within the lower and upper limits proposed in the literature, which tends to prove the good quality diagnosis of cervical smears in our laboratory.

Factors, processes and outcomes of early immersion education in the Francophone Community in Belgium

Although Belgium is characterized by a widespread consensus that a functional proficiency in the two major national languages, Dutch and French, as well as in English is desirable, educational provision to achieve such proficiency has long been constrained by an official language policy which mandates that education must be monolingual in Dutch, French or German. The last two decades, however, have witnessed an increased interest in bilingual education. In 1998, a legal framework was created for immersion education in the francophone part of the country, allowing for the use of Dutch, English or German as a medium of instruction from the age of five onwards. After an outline of the legal socio-political background, against which immersion education in Belgium is implemented, this paper describes structural and organizational features of early immersion education in the Francophone Community (FC), discusses pedagogical practices and reviews academic and linguistic outcomes. In addition, a study of the L2 development in one early English immersion school is presented. Results are compared to the L2 proficiency levels obtained in immersion preschools in Germany and Sweden. Outcomes are discussed in terms of the programme characteristics and of the challenges facing early immersion education in the FC.

Can research realise a bit of utopia? The impact of action research on the policy of childcare in Flanders

For the past 10 years, there has been ongoing research at the University of Ghent on professionalism in childcare (the 0–3 age group) in the Flemish Community of Belgium. This research has been inspired by the ‘Contesting Early Childhood’ movement, which is based on the premise that pedagogic research can lead to social change. The first studies dealt with the relationship between gender and professionalism (2002–2010). These ‘Men in Childcare’ studies were embedded in a campaign to increase the number of male workers. Between 2005 and 2008 a PhD study focused on the de-professionalisation that has taken place within the Flemish childcare sector. This study, ‘The construction of a new profession’, was part of a large European Social Fund project involving many partners across Europe. This article aims not only to shed light on the results of these studies, but also to delve into the influences that these projects and studies have had on political decision-making through their embedding in large ‘communicative spaces’.

The perception of ethnic diversity and anti-immigrant sentiments: a multilevel analysis of local communities in Belgium

Most of the literature suggests a positive relationship between immigrant concentration and anti-immigrant sentiments. The main goal of this study is to investigate the impact of both perceived and actual size of migrant populations on anti-immigrant sentiments. A representative survey of inhabitants of local communities in the Flemish region of Belgium shows a strong tendency to overestimate the presence of non-nationals. The survey allows us to conclude that respondents living in ethnically diverse communities do not have more negative attitudes towards immigrants. Individuals who perceive more immigrants to be present in their communities are more hostile even after controlling for reported contact with members of immigrant groups. We can therefore conclude that the perceived size of the immigrant group has a stronger impact on anti-immigrant sentiments than the actual presence of ethnic minority groups.

The General Practitioner and Children of Separated Parents in Belgium: A Qualitative Study and its Implications

Background: Many children are experiencing their parents’ separation and General practitioners (GPs) often have the responsibility to medically follow these young patients. Objectives: The goals were to identify the main difficulties GPs are confronted with when following children of separated (or divorced) parents and to find ways to improve the quality of these children’s continuous medical monitoring. Methods: Eight focus groups of GPs were organized in 2004 in the French-speaking Community of Belgium. Each meeting focused on couples separated for less than three years, with children aged 0 to 15. The debates were analysed with the QSR N5 software. Data saturation was obtained after four focus groups. Results: The viewpoint of GPs is: 1. Divorce affects the working conditions of GPs. 2. Conflicts between the parents cause difficulties for the GP, particularly the fact of being « exploited » by the parents. 3. All GPs do not have the same attitude towards conflicts between the parents; only some of them will try to « manage » the conflicts to improve the child’s situation. 4. Especially in the case of conflicts, parental separation brings a risk for the child: psychological disorders, physical health problems. 5. The professional attitudes of GPs can have a positive influence on the child’s development, including direct child-centred communication with the child. 6. Some actions, such as producing sickness certificates or official reports of neglect, can aggravate these children’s situation, especially in the case of conflicts between the parents. Discussion: Parental separation could be an independent risk factor for the child’s health by inducing some difficulties of tracking in primary care medicine. If this is confirmed, in case of a family breakdown, the GP should adapt the practice of prevention and care, recognizing young patients as most at risk. In order to confirm the possible impact of family status, cohort studies must be conducted either transverse observational targeting unselected paediatric populations of different ages, or even better in prospective research. Given the high prevalence of parental separation in Belgium, the influence of these situations should be measured in terms of public health.

Towards a historical sociolinguistic account of language-in-education policy in the German-speaking community of Belgium

One finds a number of descriptive synchronic sketches of language-in-education policy in the German-speaking community of Belgium (GC). However, a systematic analytical account of the evolution of language-in-education policy over the last 90 years has not been provided yet. With a project entitled ‘Language, Education and Power in the German-speaking community of Belgium (1919–2012)’, the Pluri-LL research group at the University of Namur seeks to tackle this research desideratum. The present paper intends to provide some basic information on the research project, starting with the GC’s geography and demography (Section 2) and the political history (Section 3). An outline of the project’s theoretical and methodological backbone (Section 4) and some preliminary findings (Section 5) are discussed as well.