In July 1964 Turkey signed bilateral worker immigration agreement with Belgium. 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of Turkish immigration to Belgium. I lived in Belgium between 2007 – 2011 and with this occasion I would share my views about situation of Turk’s situation in Belgium.
Current Turkish population in Belgium is estimated to be around 200,000 – 250,000. Historically, Turkish migration to Belgium began in the 1960s when Belgium was encouraging immigration to meet its economical targets. These immigrants, called as “guest workers”, were generally blue color workers and the majority of them arrived from the rural regions of Turkey, particularly from Afyon and Eskisehir.
There is also another wave of Turkish migration to Belgium. They are generally expats, who moved to Belgium to work for head offices of multinational companies there. These knowledge workers are generally graduated from good universities in Turkey, some holding high ranking positions (i.e. in Toyota Head Office in Belgium, where I worked there were Turkish Senior Managers, VP and Director). My observations, these groups of Turks are well integrated socially with their colleagues in the offices yet not with the local communities where they live due to local language, French & Flemish, issues.
I strongly believe Turks needs to be much more active in social, cultural and business aspects of life in Belgium. To give an example, Turks constitute approximately 2 % of Belgium population; similarly Jewish population in US is also around 2 %. However the representation in the key parts of life (social, cultural and business,…) is much less for Turks compared with their % and a lot more for Jewish people compared with their %. I appreciate the position of Jewish people in US, and wish same kind of representation for Turks in Belgium too. The main challenge here is for Turks themselves to work proactively to get high-level positions in business, sports, the professions, legislative assemblies, the civil service, and so forth.
I also believe that positive discrimination policies should be initiated by Belgium authorities to give an initial boost. Then they can act as role models encouraging others to follow their lead. Also the ways Turks and other cultural minorities are perceived and portrayed have consequences for the way they are treated generally. If, for instance, these minorities are portrayed as low skilled, then this will affect, perhaps unconsciously, the behavior of people who are hiring for jobs, or deciding promotions.
The majority of Turks in Brussels live in the Schaarbeek commune. The Chaussee De Haecht street is heavily populated with Turkish immigrants, with its pizzerias, pastry shops, cafes, and barbers, is reminiscent of a Turkish street. Being populated in such a central part of Brussels, I hope Turks will have more and more central roles in all walks of life in Belgium when we celebrate next anniversaries!
Hakan Erdogan 