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EU survey confirms 'expat bubble' is real
Belgium
11:36 10/07/2013
Nearly 74% of EU expats who responded to the survey felt that “the international community lives in a world of its own and has few contacts with other Brussels residents”, according to the survey, published on July 8 by the Brussels-Europe Liaison office, EurActiv reports on their website.
The survey took into account the answers of more than 9,000 EU expatriates in Brussels, revealing a largely estranged community that is secluded from local residents. By its own admission, the survey sought to clarify whether “the image of the Brussels expatriate who lives on an elitist island actually reflects the truth.” But despite its proclaimed intention of dispelling myths about the EU expat community, the survey ended up confirming a number of them. View the full report here.
Comments
Of course, if you speak to the people who don't live in Brussels, they would suggest the people of Brussels live in there own little bubble and not just the expats.
MikeK: What are you talking about? Which people who don't live in Brussels say this? Whatever possible aloofness between inhabitants of Brussels and the rest of the country is in no way comparable to the isolation of the average expat.
What I am talking about, is that Brussels is a bubble in it's own right. Heck, they don't even speak the language of the surrounding communes.
It's true Brussels is a bubble. One third of people living here are non-belgian citizens. And, while I have many Belgian friends here very few of them are actually from Brussels.They are mostly young people who have moved in from other parts of the country. I also think the term ex-pats is used a bit undiscimantely here. Those working at the institutions and missions may well stay within their own work 'bubbles' but many ex-pats also work in jobs that engage them with a broader section of society.
For some insights into the subject (written before I moved to Bruxelles but already an ex-pat) I refer readers to my (first ever) blog http://theexpat-files.blogspot.be/2007/05/foreign-affairs.html