What's happening to Brussels' inner-city neighbourhoods? Selective migrationfrom areas undergoing gentrification
Notes de la rédaction
This is the press release related to the article from Mathieu Van Criekingen, published on December 12, 2006. Read the article.
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 2001national 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 greenersuburbs), underlines the ambiguousness of what is often considered to be apositive revitalisation of the city but also depends, in part, on disadvantaged population groups and problems of poverty’s being shifted to other locations.
References
Van Criekingen, Mathieu “What's happening to Brussels' inner-city neighbourhoods? Selective migrationfrom areas undergoing gentrification”, Brussels Studies [Online], General collection, No 1, 12 december 2006. URL: https://journals.openedition.org/brussels/303
Contact
Benjamin Wayens, Senior Editor: bwayens[at]brusselsstudies.be