University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations Summer 2020 Immigrant Belonging in Belgium: Laws, Localities, and Living Together Samuel P. Nielson Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Geography Commons Recommended Citation Nielson, S. P.(2020). Immigrant Belonging in Belgium: Laws, Localities, and Living Together. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/6022 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. IMMIGRANT BELONGING IN BELGIUM: LAWS, LOCALITIES, AND LIVING TOGETHER by Samuel P. Nielson Bachelor of Science Brigham Young University, 2007 Juris Doctor University of Iowa, 2010 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2020 Accepted by: Caroline Nagel, Major Professor Amy Mills, Committee Member David Kneas, Committee Member Alexander Murphy, Committee Member Cheryl L. Addy, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School © Copyright by Samuel P. Nielson, 2020 All Rights Reserved. ii DEDICATION To my amazing and supportive wife Chanell, who made this possible, and to our wonderful daughters who made this an adventure. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I am grateful to my family for their love and support. I really could not have done this without you. Chanell, you are my everything. I next wish to thank my committee. I will always be grateful to Dr. Amy Mills for her fantastic guidance both with this dissertation and in my academic career generally. She truly helped me situate my research in geography and connect to the broader discipline. Dr. Alec Murphy likewise offered considerable assistance in shaping my work as a political geographer. Dr. David Kneas shared valuable insight in interpreting my observations. And thanks to Dr. Caroline Nagel for serving as the committee chair. I wish to thank other who have been there along the way. A great deal of gratitude goes to Dr. Jean Ellis for her mentoring and guidance in navigating the academic world. Thank you as well to all of my friends and fellow students who have joined me on the journey including Ben Sylvester, Beth Nelson, Sahar Derakhshan, Nick Sokol, Chris Krause, Divin Boutros, and so many others. I also wish to acknowledge and thank the directors of Wallonia’s Regional Integration Centers for their engagement with the project and support for my research. Finally, I wish to thank the Walker Center at UofSC and the Bilinski Education Foundation for providing financial support for this dissertation. iv ABSTRACT Nationalism is rising in Europe and the world. Much of it responds to massive migration, with nationalistic Europeans vocalizing their belief that immigrants do not “belong” in their countries. Many states respond to this influx of people and rising anti- immigrant sentiment by creating laws demanding immigrant “integration.” Yet a clear understanding of what defines “integration” remains elusive. So too does an understanding of how laws aimed at immigrant integration influence relationships between immigrants and local citizens, institutions, and spaces. This research addresses both of these points in Belgium, a politically and culturally fractured country that serves as a microcosm of Europe’s integration debates. This research investigates “integration” laws in Wallonia, Belgium’s francophone region, and understandings of integration and belonging as considered by: (1) workers tasked with implementing Wallonia’s integration laws, (2) migrants affected by these laws, and (3) locals comprising the “host society” into which migrants are to integrate according to the laws. Findings from interviews with integration workers show that “integration” cannot conceptually be categorized as an either/or proposition set forth by the state along a multicultural versus assimilationist ideological spectrum. Workers simultaneously incorporate elements from normative assimilationist and multicultural models to create a localized sense of integration. Actors implementing integration laws do so differently—at a localized level—based on divergent ideas of belonging and community. Each worker v has his or her own notions of how things should be, or how they are on the ground, and acts accordingly. Laws may dictate one thing; workers may do another. Findings from interviews with migrants engaging with Wallonia’s legally mandated integration programs reveal that migrants’ seemingly instrumental decision to acquire legal citizenship is not devoid of emotion. Many maintain an attachment to the country’s political culture, meaning safety, personal liberty, and legal institutions, rather than the national culture. Others seek legal citizenship to secure a sense of belonging in their new state. The migrants’ emotional attachments to the state are thus real, but perhaps without the full panoply of emotions desired by nationalists. Findings from interviews with locals considered members of the “host society” provides empirical evidence contesting the idea of uniform host societies and congruity between society and state (or even substate) boundaries. Host societies are not monolithic entities and nationalist ideologies do not necessarily shape immigration, integration, and citizenship policies in any singular way; there is a process that significantly varies across national space. This variance results from fellow community members’ competing imaginaries and emotional attachments to place that may be more local in nature. Each person acts according to his or her own notions of who they are and who members of their fellow community are. So while certain ideas/societal conceptions may appear one way, everyday imaginations may be different. This contributes to an increasing literature focused on host society perceptions. And it provides a new framework for considering ordinary persons’ perspectives by engaging elements from existing frameworks addressing nationalism and identity (everyday nationhood and belonging). vi In sum, this research expands theoretical frameworks regarding belonging, citizenship, and identity while simultaneously providing informed perspectives to those working with immigrants and also officials crafting integration laws. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Abstract ................................................................................................................................v List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures ......................................................................................................................x List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................1 Chapter 2: Literature Review: Critically Considering Integration ....................................24 Chapter 3: Methodology ....................................................................................................66 Chapter 4: Walloon Integration Workers and Belgian Belonging .....................................90 Chapter 5: Exploring “Citizenship” Among Immigrants Attending Walloon Civic Integration Courses ........................................................................131 Chapter 6: Rethinking the Nation in Integration Discourses By Looking More Closely at the Locals ................................................................168 Chapter 7: Overall Summary and Conclusions ...............................................................202 References ........................................................................................................................216 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Summary of methods and field sites ..................................................................82 Table 5.1 Characteristics of Observed FIC Course Participants ......................................167 Table 6.1 Interviewees’ backgrounds ..............................................................................202 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Belgium’s Regions ...........................................................................................22 Figure 1.2 Belgium’s Communities ...................................................................................23 Figure 3.1. Administrative action areas for Wallonia’s CRIs ............................................83 Figure 3.2. CRVI’s headquarters in Verviers ....................................................................84 Figure 3.3. CRIPEL’s location in downtown Liège ..........................................................85 Figure 3.4. Mosque in Louvain-la-Neuve ..........................................................................86 Figure 3.5. Certificate of Completion for FIC ...................................................................87 Figure 3.6. Inside one of the