Do feelings of discrimination explain the riots in Brussels?

Abstract

Community problems escalated within certain Brussels neighbourhoods in September 2009 and at the beginning of 2010. Do subjective feelings of discrimination form a breeding ground for such events? We studied how widely spread the perceptions of discrimination are amongst young 2nd generation Belgians of Turkish and Moroccan origin, which contexts of discrimination are distinguished and who perceives the most discrimination. Is this perception indeed limited to so-called “problem youths”, or are such experiences more widely dispersed within the groups? In order to be able to contextualise the situation within the BCR, we compared the same feelings in the same groups within the city of Antwerp. We conclude that the structure of the perceived group discrimination is similar in Brussels and Antwerp for both the 2nd generation Belgians of Moroccan and Turkish origin. There is no difference in the level of experienced group discrimination. Only the perceived group discrimination within the public domain is higher in Antwerp. The level of perceived group discrimination in contacts with the police is thus not found to be significant in either city. However, confrontations with the police in Brussels do figure more strongly within the latent concept than in Antwerp.

Keywords

• immigration
• discrimination
• insecurity
• social unrest