What is happening to Brussels’ inner-city neighbourhoods?
Saying that there is a housing crisis in Brussels has become a commonplace. This situation’s high profile in the news and politics is doubtless linked to the fact that henceforward households’ lack of financial resources to cover their housing costs is no longer deemed to be problematic for those at the bottom of the social scale, but for middle-class households as well.
Description
The accessibility of housing to low-income households in
downtown Brussels has become much more complicated over the last
decade. At the same time, there have been many clear signs of
renewed investment in these neighbourhoods. This article proposes
an interpretation of these ongoing changes in Brussels in terms of
gentrification. The analysis is rooted in particular in a study of
migratory statistics, that is to say, who is leaving the Brussels
neighbourhoods that are becoming gentrified and where are they
going (remaining in Brussels or leaving the city altogether)?
Results indicate that, even if gentrification in Brussels is still
marked by the gradual mutation of workingclass areas into “trendy”
rather than “chic” neighbourhoods, this process is already highly
selective in social terms. Indeed, whilst various types of migrant
are leaving the inner city, their destinations vary markedly, in
line with their socio-economic profiles.
Background information
Struck as each of us may be by the gradual transformation of a
number of Brussels working-class neighbourhoods into “trendy”
neighbourhoods, Mathieu Van Criekingen provides an enlightening and
thorough study of the gentrification of various poor areas of the
city. The first sign and consequence of this phenomenon is the
change in the real estate market, with rising rents. Who is drawn
to these areas of gentrification, who is moving into them? Who is
being driven out of them and where are they going? In getting the
figures of the 2001 national socio-economic survey to “talk”,
Mathieu Van Criekingen paints a clear picture of the contrasting
phenomena underlying gentrification in Brussels and, through a
detailed analysis of migratory movements (the rise in Brussels’
population is due above all to the arrival of foreigners rather
than a reversal of urban flight, i.e., the return of former
residents who moved to the greener suburbs), underlines the
ambiguousness of what is often considered to be a positive
revitalisation of the city but also depends, in part, on
disadvantaged population groups and problems of poverty’s being
shifted to other locations.
Knowledge dissemination
Brussels Studies, the e-journal for
acadmic research on Brussels
Contact info
Université Libre de Bruxelles
CP246, boulevard du Triomphe
1050 Bruxelles
Belgium
www.ulb.ac.be
Mathieu van Criekingen (Postdoctoral Researcher), tel. +32 2 650 50
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