L’émigration italienne vers les mines belges (1946-1950) : les motifs politiques et leur héritage

Abstract

Italians still constitute one of the largest foreign communities in Belgium. Though they are best known for their massive arrival from 1946 on, when they came to work in the Belgian mines, Italian migrants were already largely present in Belgium before the Second World War. This flow has never stopped and today many Italians keep coming especially to Brussels in search of economic and social stability. Through new research on the presence of Italians in Belgium, this article analyses the political reasons for Italian emigration to Belgium after the Second World War. Results indicate that today’s political attitudes of Italians in Belgium are still influenced by the political circumstances that motivated their departure.

Keywords

• migration
• poverty
• Italy
• Belgium
• social fights
• repression