After the Belgian revolution in 1830 French became the official language, although the majority of the Belgians were unilingual Flemish (i.e. Dutch) speaking. The Flemish movement succeeded in emancipating Flanders. The ransom was a high degree of frenchification in the capital Brussels, situated in Flemish‐Brabant. Socio‐psychological pressure and sabotage of the language laws resulted in an astonishing process of language shift in the Brussels agglomeration. Primary education played a leading role. In consequence of both the political and sociological emancipation of Flanders and the fact that the region was becoming economically the strongest area, an evolution took place in the 1970s. For the first time a satisfactory Dutch language educational infrastructure was established in Brussels, controlled by the Flemish authorities and focusing on multilinguality. In the 1980s there was an increasing linguistic effect of the international migration to Brussels in its new role of capital of Europe: on the one...