EDITORIAL
Bubbles inside the Bubbles … # WeLoveBrussels by António Buscardini
António Buscardini is a journalist and TV producer. He is the Editor-in-chief of the Press Club Brussels Europe Magazine. He is also the journalist and director of the Itinéris series, produced by SIBOMONDE and broadcasted on TV5 Monde. He signs a permanent column named Tales from the Regions within The Brussels Times. Furthermore he is leading the Regional Flavours Initiative within FEDRA. From 2010 to May 2015 he was the Coordinator for Press and Communications within the Assembly of European Regions. He is Portuguese and a Benfica fan.
Brussels- capital of Belgium, capital of Europe, famous for its French fries- well, actually in Belgium you would just say“ fries”, renowned for its amazing chocolate and remembered for having over a thousand different types of beers.
Brussels – the city where you can find everything, from local recipes to international cuisine and restaurants, fancy cosmopolitan neighbourhoods bordering alternative ghettos, different languages spoken at every street corner and finally, from my point of view, the most majestic square I ever seen: La Grand Place.
This city is also known, due to the continuously growing number of European Expats, as the“ bubble”. In other words, most of the foreigners who work for the European institutions, international banks and companies, press and lobbying agencies, live in a different kind of Brussels, a parallel city with their own culture, habits and routine. The most emblematic cliché of this is the international gathering on Thursday nights at the famous Place Luxembourg. Brussels – the city where 55 % of the population comes from abroad, half of which from the EU 28.
“ A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country” – this is probably the simplest way of defining an immigrant. Brussels, in its complexity, has different types of immigrants. In the past year, I have discovered extraordinary stories on immigration of all sorts, from all sorts of countries and told by all sorts of people. If we get back to the“ bubble” concept, each time we think about the so-called“ Expats”, we imagine wealthy EU civil servants earning more than 70 thousand euros per year and living the dream. They do exist, but there is more.
In the 60’ s, a huge wave of immigrants from the South of Europe came to Brussels seeking a better life. First hand, were the Italians, the Spanish and of course, the Portuguese. They were mainly working in restaurants, the construction industry, or as concierges and cleaning ladies. This generation remained in Brussels to this day.
As a foreigner living in Belgium since over three years, I have never considered myself as an“ immigrant”. From my point of view, Brussels is more than just the capital of a foreign country. We are at the heart of European culture and diversity.
However, one conversation opened my eyes on what“ immigration” truly can be. Let me share with you the story of David.
David is a 50-year-old man, from the region of Caramulo in Portugal. He owns a restaurant in Place Flagey, a famous location gathering the Portuguese community every weekend to watch
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