22 October 2024

Johan Leman

Climate Change and Migrations

According to the World Bank, it is expected that by 2050, 216 million climate refugees will leave their countries. Not only will droughts or floods be the cause, but also […]

8 October 2024

Johan Leman

Is Low Molenbeek undergoing social change?

There are indications that, in certain parts of this municipality of 100,000 inhabitants spread across several neighborhoods, a strong social differentiation is taking place. In some neighborhoods, the middle class […]

2 October 2024

Johan Leman

Bad air!

“The annual averages from ExpAIR in Brussels are in! And, as expected, they are not good… Out of the 24 measuring points, four exceed the European threshold of 40 µg/m³. […]

23 September 2024

Johan Leman

Shortage of social housing in Brussels fuels the far-right in the periphery

The dynamic is not hard to demonstrate. Rental prices in the neighborhoods of the Brussels canal zone are skyrocketing. You can quickly find yourself paying 1000 euros per month for […]

18 September 2024

Johan Leman

We are turning our education system into a disaster zone…

To be clear: I understand very well that a school administration may choose to offer four days of classes instead of five due to a shortage of teachers. I also […]

13 September 2024

Johan Leman

Does ease of acquiring nationality attract asylum seekers?

I have previously supervised a PhD student who studied in Istanbul at an UNHCR center why migrants in transit choose a particular country. The three main criteria were: whether a […]

9 September 2024

Johan Leman

Migrant communities exhibit great differences within themselves

What strikes me more and more is how strong the differences are between people that outside observers deem to be similar. This especially becomes apparent after a certain period of […]

2 July 2024

Johan Leman

Why a New Analysis of the Integration Process is Desirable…

Traditionally, the successive phases of migrant integration were classified as follows: the first generation was followed by a second generation (i.e., their children), and the process concluded with the third […]

19 June 2024

Johan Leman

Some young Belgian-Moroccans are seeking their future in Morocco

At the end of the 1980s, the first important message disseminated by the Royal Commissioner for Immigrant Policy was that people of Moroccan and Turkish origin would permanently remain in […]

13 June 2024

Johan Leman

What were the causes of the focus on Islam among the Muslim migrants?

You can’t miss it: if you listen to the workers of Moroccan and Turkish origin who arrived in Brussels between 1964 and 1974, they all, without exception, say that concern […]

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Johan Leman is a social and cultural anthropologist and president of Foyer VZW since 2003, where he was director from 1981 to 1989. He is an expert on integration policy and the fight against racism. From 1989 to 1993 he was chief of cabinet of the Royal Commissioner for Migrant Policy and from 1993 to 2003 he was director of the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism.

In this blog, he gives his opinion and views on current events in and around Molenbeek.