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Rue des Ateliers 25, 1080 Molenbeek
00.32 (2) 411.74.95
Copyright © Foyer 2020
Johan Leman, 2 September 2025
According to figures submitted to Parliament by Minister David Clarinval, as of 1 January 2026 a total of 40,775 people in the Brussels-Capital Region will lose their unemployment benefits. These people mainly live in the following municipalities: Brussels-City: 7,825 people, Schaerbeek: 4,761, Anderlecht: 4,604 and Sint-Jans-Molenbeek: 4,038.
Many of those affected will have to turn to the Public Centre for Social Welfare for support. This will inevitably have consequences for social cohesion in the poorer neighbourhoods of Brussels. Assuming that these people will suddenly become eligible for the labour market seems to me an illusion, given the existing mismatch between the regional labour market and the training of those concerned. I hope I am wrong.
Consequences? The impoverishment is already clearly visible. It is very concrete: for example, you notice a shift in clientele between supermarkets. The new chain Tanger attracts a lot of people, and this has nothing to do with Islam or with community identity. It is simply cheaper. This impoverishment will continue and worsen.
I do not want to draw a direct link between poverty and drug dealing by children from such families, but it seems to me inevitable that an increased drug-dealing problem will emerge. The money will have to come from somewhere for these people. It may sound odd, but in such neighbourhoods social security also partly means social peace.
Some questions, I believe, need to be asked. Is the consolidation of public finances being carried out in a sufficiently balanced way? Even from a purely financial perspective: is sufficient account being taken of the side effects of the chosen austerity path, which in turn will lead to additional financial costs for the government? In some neighbourhoods more police will be needed (and even now there is often too little), and people’s health will not improve. That too entails additional public costs. My fear is that this entire path of fiscal consolidation takes too little account of the new public expenses it will generate.
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