Living in Belgium
Overview of Belgium
Belgium is a small country with a population of 10 million. The expatriate population is concentrated in two main cities, Brussels and Antwerp, where many work for organizations such as the European Union or Nato, and multinational companies.
Belgium is a country where several languages are spoken. Dutch is the official language in Flanders, French in Wallonia and German in the tiny eastern cantons in the Ardennes. Brussels is officially bilingual, with both French and Dutch given equal status.
The language issue goes back to the fall of the Roman Empire, when German tribes conquered the low land to the north, while Romanised Celts held on to the land in the south. For many centuries, Brussels was a Dutch-speaking city, but a small French-speaking elite began to take over in the 15th century. Elsewhere in Flanders, the upper classes often spoke French until well in the 20th century, while Dutch speakers were treated as second-class citizens. Inspired by civil rights movements elsewhere in the world, Dutch speakers gradually asserted their rights in the 1960s, leading in 1962 to the creation of a language frontier dividing the country into two regions. As a result, the country has slowly drifted apart, with different television stations, newspapers, schools and even libraries. It occasionally provides a cultural confusion, as when an address is given as Rue de Namur/Naamsestraat.
The Belgian capital, Brussels, is undeniably the heart of the EU. The European Union now counts 25 member states and some 450 million citizens since the latest enlargement on 1 May 2004. The number of members (MEPs) in the Parliament is 732. Brussels is a complex and constantly surprising city of one million people, one quarter of them are foreigners (around 36%).
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