Saturday, March 15, 2014
Palladian (Omni Shoreham)
In this paper I would like to evaluate the ‘postcolonial bonus’ hypothesis (Oostindie, 2011) with regards to the Congolese immigrants in Belgium. Belgian’s colonial migration history presents 2 main differences with regards to the British, French or Dutch configurations. First, Belgian colonization did not lead to the establishment of an empire. Congo was Belgium’s only colony, except for a trusteeship over Rwanda and Burundi after World War One. Second, Belgium did not experience a large postcolonial migration flow. The exploitative and segregating colonial policy practised in Congo did not stimulate the Congolese to migrate to Belgium, even when immigrant labour was needed after the Second World War (finally realized through bilateral cooperation with Italy, Spain, Morocco and Turkey). After Independence, the Congolese eventually started to come to Belgium as students, diplomats or tourists but until the late 1980’s not as migrants or asylum seekers. This changed in the beginning of the 1990’s, due to the declining socioeconomic situation in their home country. Nowadays, three generations of Congolese Belgians make up a community that shows a paradoxical socioeconomic integration pattern, combining on average the highest level of education with the highest level of unemployment in Belgian society (Schoonvaere, 2010). Despite an intense involvement of Congolese Belgians in the academic, associative, political or artistic spheres, several variables point towards a particular post-colonial racialization process. We argue that the absence of a public debate on the colonial history of Belgium suggests a link between the marginalization of this group and the colonial legacy.
