We had the opportunity to know people from different countries of Europe and the world, but we had not yet the opportunity to give voice to a Belgian citizen. This time, therefore, we won’t miss this opportunity

Virginie Goossens is 22 and lives in Brussels for a year and a half. In any case, the path that led her here is not very long. At least, not in terms of distance... Our friend was born in Charleroi (Hainaut county) and its roots are Walloon and Flemish. Therefore, a "real" Belgian, in a country where the foreign presence plays a very important role for decades [1].

With her family, Virginie lived in different cities of Wallonia and, spent one year in France (in Ales in the Gard county). "I was 15 when we left to France, to return after 12-13 months. Then we lived in Gosselies and finally in Courcelles. "

At the beginning, the passion for theater led her to the Belgian capital. "In September 2009, I enrolled at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels." Virginie explains us that she chose this city for the high quality offered in the studies. "For a year I lived in Courcelles and I had the courses here. It was not easy, because each trip took about an hour and twenty minutes, but I liked what I did."

And then? What happened? "I've changed my mind about my professional life – she says - but I decided to move to Brussels." In 2010, our friend decided to leave the Conservatory (which she criticizes the fact that it admits some students who are not committed enough) and enroll in courses of professional hairdresser in Ixelles.

"I decided to live in the capital city, above all, for practical reasons. Indeed, I chose to continue my education here and I did not have time to live at my parents’ and study in Brussels. Then I found also other things that I was looking for when I started to know this city." What does it mean? "An open environment that offers stimulating opportunities for those who love art, culture. There are many opportunities to enrich themselves, through exhibitions, bookstores, theater. In addition, you are sometimes surrounded by the beauty of the architecture. I could say I am amazed every time I contemplate the Grand Place. "

So, Virginie likes Brussels, even if she considers it expensive ("rents in particular"). At this point, we asked our friend if, in the current Brussels melting pot, she feels more in Belgium or in Europe. She answers: "I like being in a Belgian town but very cosmopolitan. One can find all the symbols of Belgium, but with a population of various ethnic origins, speaking different languages, not only Flemish and Walloon."

Does she like that kind of context? "Of course - she answers - I really do not mind to see a lot of people coming from different countries. It is interesting, rewarding. Simply, we should not forget who we are, our customs, the Belgian specificities. Keeping these elements is important. It also gives meanings to travels. Finding out new things compared to who we are, to embrace another culture. "

At the end of this interesting and pleasant conversation, we are still a little curious to know what Virginie’s plans are for her future. If she thinks to go back on stage, for example. "I like what I do now, but theater is a very important part of my life. This is my inspiration, my soul. So of course I want to start over. Each pause is interesting, but I must hand over the feet of the stage." And she continues: "When I play, I can be anyone, who I want at any time. I can feel and recreate emotions. Ensure that everyone suffers and laugh with me."

With this enthusiasm our friend is undoubtedly part of the many faces of Brussels. A diverse city, where she plans to stay and where, when she goes out, she often "feels like in a trip".



[1] In French: «L’immigration des populations étrangères et leurs implications économiques et démographiques sont intimement liées à l’histoire récente de la Belgique. Terre d’émigration au XIXe   siècle, la Belgique est devenu un pays d’immigration au XXe siècle».
http://statbel.fgov.be/fr/modules/digilib/population/3009_la_population_allochtone_en_belgique.jsp .

The interview today is dedicated to Pierre Vilpoux, 26, a French native of Angers. I arrive at his place around 6.45pm, with some delay. It's a weekday and our friend came home from work not long ago. He is a designer and project manager at 7 concepts (http://www.7concepts.net/ ) and when I say hello and ask him how he arrived in Brussels, he replies with a smile: "through Asia ". Peter offers me a beer and we start our conversation.

"I'm in Brussels for four months, but this is not my first destination outside of France. Before, I lived in China for two years." Peter comes from a middle-class family (his father is a carpenter). He studied at the "Ecole de design Nantes Atlantique" and during the last months of his training he started to work in a company where he had the opportunity to stay after graduation. "I did not encounter difficulties in finding a job" he tells us. "The people with whom I had worked during my studies have offered me to stay and with interesting conditions." So what pushed our friend to leave is not a difficult economic situation or a closed labor market: "This was a personal choice. It was in 2009. I was hired with a good salary and I continued working there for about five months, but I felt the need to see a new context, to have an experience abroad."

But why China? "I had some French friends who were in Shanghai for their studies. So I already had contacts there, and a logistical assistance. I thought why not." Peter is then, by chance, on the other side of the world, where he began working as a designer for an event company (Jetlag, a Chinese company with French entrepreneurs).

Our friend spent two years in Shanghai and describes a positive experience, although from the point of view of a "privileged person": "It was an interesting life and quite comfortable. Certainly not if we speaks of the daily life a most people, for whom the cost of living is high. But for a person with a European salary things are different. We can afford, for example, to go more often in restaurants, take a taxi, and pay for massages. I miss all this a minimum."

Nevertheless, around May-June 2011, Peter decided to return to Europe. "For different reasons," he explains. "I wanted to find a new job and, at this moment, in Shanghai, I could not find interesting opportunities. Then, I was missing my family and friends. In addition, I was a little tired by China. There, as I said, I was well, but I find Europe more diverse. In a smaller area, you can move and find more different cultural contexts. My girlfriend - from Italy and known in China - also wanted to leave, so we took our decision."
I asked Peter to know why he did not return to France and what the reasons that led him to Brussels were. "I did not want to continue my career in France," he says. "I do not like the way to work in France. There is too much hierarchy. In a company, it is difficult to take decisions together. I think this is an old vision, which limits creativity, essential in my field. In Brussels I found a professional context I like, where I have many responsibilities and my ideas have an important place."

Anyways, the Belgian capital was not part of its plans for a long time and, at the beginning, the main things that especially attracted our friend was "the mixture of cultures and people of this city. This is why - he tells us - it looks a bit like Shanghai, but more human-sized, much smaller."
So, Peter arrived in Brussels (as in Shanghai) by chance, found a place he appreciates and moreover, in his opinion, the living cost is not too high ("buying food is - according to him - cheaper than in France"). Indeed, his future plans are to stay here, to find a new home and to travel throughout Europe.

Before concluding our pleasant conversation and thank our friend for his availability, I ask him if he would like to stress any unpleasant thing after four months in the city. With a smile he answers: "Yes, certainly. When I was looking for a job, I wrote an email to the mayor of Brussels, to request information and get advice. Well, and he did not answer me! ".
Beyond the irony, we can agree on the fact that contact with politicians is always an elusive goal, isn't it?

Unlike the EU often too abstract and divided internally, inside Brussels you can have the feeling to be one step forward in the achievement of a common space for citizens form different EU member States. And this is not only true for EU citizens. Brussels is indeed populated by people from other regions and they contribute to the construction of not only European urban environment but a truly international urban environment.

Today this interview is dedicated to a young woman who lives in Brussels for 10 years now. She is from Ciudad de Mexico and knows really well the Brussels’ peculiar environment. She has also today her own Belgian passport.
 
THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS’ APPEAL
 
Marisol Escobar Uribe is 30 years old. Until her 20’s, she studied International affairs and Journalism in Mexico where her family was from (her father being a technical supervisor in a tire factory). “At this time, thanks to scholarship, I had the opportunity to move to Europe. I have always been fascinated by the history, the culture and the art of the Old Continent and particularly in regards with the contemporary period. Moreover the integration process (launched during the second part of the 20th Century), the way evolved Institutions and European laws, common policy (CAP above all) was among some of the topics that draw my attention and that convinced me to choose Brussels”.
 
According to Marisol, the Capital of Belgium represented therefore the perfect place to complete her University studies and to be lead to path of a career within the EU. Indeed, after a complementary master degree at the Université Libre de Bruxelles’ European Studies Institute and a master degree in development cooperation at the CBT (The Belgian Agency for Development), she dedicated her professional life to this goal. “One of the reasons that prod me to stay here was the great desire to work on EU related subjects. One of the issues to which I dedicate a lot of my time is the respect of environment in our current economical context. This goal is linked to the activities of the organisation I work for: PlanetEarth ”
 
BRUSSELS: AN INTERNATIONAL VILLAGE
 
However her studies and professional perspectives set aside, are there other reasons that encourage Marisol to leave her country? Did she face any troubles linked with the Mexican context? She says: “No, not for me. Even though I can’t hide the problems in Mexico such like insecurity, corruption or drugs. Then we need to recognize Europe enjoys high standards of public services and welfare state. The living conditions are generally higher. In addition there are more achievements in terms of economical and environmental policies”.

We ask her now to explain us the differences between the European Capital and her native city. “Well, first of all Brussels, she says, is a small village compared to Ciudad de Mexico. I love living here. After all if I may add a small critic: in Europe I’ve noticed a colder way of engaging social relations. In Brussels (apart from the European Area), I had the feeling that often people sharing the same origins tend to form closed groups towards others. In my country we would call it “juntos pero no revueltos” (together but unmingled). In my mind, we would need to make some efforts in order to make the different cultural identities populating this city creating a major integration. Anyways young people are more open-minded.”

Before ending our conversation and thanking Marisol for her time, we ask her one last question. During her living years in Brussels as a non-European did she experience from time to time discriminatory treatments? “Unfortunately yes. During my job search, my origins didn’t help sometimes.”

Prejudices, we know are difficult to overcome.

According to the article 9 of the Treaty of the European Union and according to the article 20 (paragraph 1) on the functioning of the European Union, is considered as “citizen of the Union every person holding the nationality of a Member State. Citizenship of the Union shall be additional to and not replace national citizenship”. As a matter of fact it’s logical that every citizen of the Union has “the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States”.
Certainly, in Europe today’s context, the freedom of movement has very obvious effects on the demography of various cities and regions of the Union whose population is more diversified in terms of origins than in the past decades. [1]

On this matter, Brussels turns out to be an interesting example. Just have a walk through the city and you will realize that. I am myself doing it this afternoon for instance. From Place de la Chapelle, I am passing by small streets in the centre on my way to the European neighborhood. Various faces and languages reckoned during my walk are the proofs of a rich and multicultural environment.
The young nationals from EU member states we met in this city are often pretty skilled. Indeed, being the institutional Capital of the EU enable Brussels to attract many activities and become an important pole of attraction.

LEAVE THE NATIVE COUNTRY TO GAIN ITS INDEPENDENCE
 
However do the numerous EU citizens, often endowed with a significant know-how, move only to seize new opportunities offered by the integration process or do the economic imbalances between EU regions hide behind the free movement? Are those differences creating an imperfect market where we count areas with, at first, few interesting perspectives for young citizens and others area becoming hubs?

By the way, I am arriving now to Valeria Ramiconi’s place. Valeria has accepted to be interviewed for the sake of this story aiming at getting to know the view of a young professional who left her native country in order to work in Brussels.
Valeria is 29 and comes from Rome. After studies in Political Science, she moved to Brussels for an internship at Agriconsulting Europe SA where she works today as project manager.

"I arrived in Brussels two years ago. At the end of my Master in Project Management, I had the opportunity to do a stage and I wanted to have a professional experience abroad. I applied for three or four job offers and I was then selected for a job in Brussels. Well we can say that I arrived here by chance. I eventually kept on working for the same company. I have today a permanent contract.”
Therefore Valeria didn't look for a job in Italy as a first choice. However she had later the opportunity to make her own view on the differences between the Belgian and the Italian markets. “Those last months - she recounts- I did receive job offers from Italy but the working conditions wouldn't have been the same as the one I enjoy here and the wage was lower… In addition, friends of mine there, as old as I am, didn't make their living with their respective job so that they have to live in their parents' place or share a flat while tightening their belt. Here at least I can enjoy my independence”.

Valeria's first sentences give us an insight of Italy not really attractive for young citizens, even for the ones who have University's degrees. Those graduated citizens have trouble to find a job matching with their skills and have poor professional opportunities. It is to be explained by a system blocked by the preservation of some privileges and by the lack of meritocracy.
 
A LOST GENERATION
 
According to Valeria “those failures are especially the result of an incompetent ruling class whose objective isn't the achievement of the common interest but the defense of private interests. For years, the ruling class has made moral what wasn't acceptable. A negative example has inspired the society. It has spread the civil moral and has distorted it”. The outcome: “We lost the sense of the res publica.” 

In that context, acquaintances or family matter a lot for the professional life. They can give a strong advantage compared to other young citizens. If you don't have this luck you get frustrated in your capabilities and ambitions. "Skills, degrees, turn out often to be not sufficient. To find the right job you need to have a good network. It's just normal that a lot of persons of my age decide to try their luck abroad" adds Valeria. She considers that the concrete solution to address Italy’s problems lies on, above all, “a good politics managed by well prepared individuals with a great vision and interests towards the sake of the youngest generations". 

In her professional life, Valeria is often in contact with European Institutions and has to deal with issues related to the EU. So I keep on taking advantage of her availability in order to ask her to give us, according to personal observations, whether Europe is suffering from multiple unbalances between some of its regions; those unbalances harming the development of a virtuous common market. "The EU- she replies- is a heterogeneous space economically and culturally speaking. There are unbalances in terms of wealth, labor market, public services and I consider it's not a positive element for the integration process. Obviously, useful instruments exist to help disadvantaged areas. Anyway, once the crisis is over, it would much appreciated to give a great importance to this matter and to strengthen Brussels’ surveillance on the efficient use of those funds dedicated to the weakest regions". 

Before thanking Valeria for her time, I ask her if she feels like going back to Italy one day. Here is her answer: “Why not? provided that I have a job enabling me to live decently. I love my country and I am proud of its history. I am sad though thinking about how the Italian politics went backwards these last decades. The Italian Constitution is a well praised model but many people in power don't know it nowadays. So if I ever want to go back things would have really to change because today I am afraid I would feel as part of a “lost generation” underpaid, harnessed and deprived from its legitimate perspectives”.



[1] Clearly, the multicultural contexts being formed int the EU are the result of people movement between Member States and of the migration of people from third countries. K. Vasileva explains that «31.9 million» (which means, «6.4% of the total EU population») of «non-nationals […] were living on the territory of the EU Member States on 1 January 2009», more then one third «(11.9 million), were citizens of another Member State» (Katya Vasileva, Foreigners living in the EU are diverse and largely younger than the nationals of the EU Member States, Eurostat, Statistics in focus, 45/2010, p.1.