Migrant communities exhibit great differences within themselves

---

Johan Leman, 9 September 2024

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 time, I suppose after 10 to 15 years.

I conducted interviews with dozens of people from Morocco and Turkey who came to Brussels in the 1960s. They sometimes also speak about people from their community who migrated later. Well, what I take from this is that the perception of one another within these communities diverges greatly over time and is far more complex than a simple division between migrants and post-migrants might suggest.

Sure, during a football match, these people, across generations, will likely still support Morocco or Turkey, and in problematic situations where their community is targeted, they will close ranks. But the internal differences, for example in how they perceive each other, view Belgium, or the country of origin, can be very pronounced.

This is underestimated and will increasingly be reflected in electoral behavior in the short term. Voting will gradually spread across all parties and may even sometimes lead to the emergence of new types of parties. This also explains the ease with which some people from immigrant backgrounds can switch political parties. Interpreting new parties immediately as Islamic parties is a very superficial view of developments and reveals that some commentators are not very connected with what is happening in certain communities.

Back