All rooms are equipped with an overhead projector
Rooms C, D, E, F, G and H (H only on Saturday): slide projector (framed slides, carrousel. There are extra carrousels available to set up your presentation in advance)
Rooms C, D, M, N, O, U and Committee Room 2: beamer to connect your laptop. You have to bring you own laptop. (If you want to use your Apple notebook, please contact us, as it may be incompatible.)
Rooms C, T and U: VCR
Programme
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Poles in Brussels. Analysis of the "non-existent" immigrants’ community.
| Brussels, heart of the European Union, is home to the largest population of recent illegal Polish immigrants in Belgium. During the last fifteen years, many Polish people have come to this city to look for a job in an undocumented sector of the Belgian economy. The beginning of the contemporary Polish community in Belgium can be traced back to 1991 when the Belgium state lifted the obligation of obtaining a visa for Polish citizens. Since that year, Poles were allowed to arrive in Belgium as tourists and stay there for a period of three months. During that time they were not allowed to take up any work activities. The majority of Polish citizens not only found illegal employment but extended their stay beyond the permitted three months. This human movement is different from previous flows of migrants and constitutes an example of a new form of social life: the transnational community. This community is composed, in the majority of cases, of Polish citizens living in Belgium without any legal status. Many members of this community travel back and forth between Poland and Belgium many times a year. This is the example of the circular migration characterizing recent flows of migration in Europe. With Poland’s accession to the European Union, the legal situation of Poles in Belgium has not been substantially changed. Current regulations stipulate that they can stay legally for an unlimited period of time, provided they present documents confirming their source of income. In the majority of cases this is impossible since most Poles have not received a working permit in Belgium and therefore they still work illegally. It is difficult to estimate the size of the Polish community in Brussels since the majority of individuals have not been documented. Officially, in 2003, in all Brussels districts, as many as 2120 Polish citizens were registered. The actual number of this community is estimated to be 30-35,000 in the state capital alone. Undoubtedly, this accounts for the largest illegal community of migrants from Central and Easter Europe. The main conclusion of my research is that a transnational community of Polish immigrants does indeed exist in Brussels. Poles in Brussels are developing businesses, organizations and different forms of interdependence that allow them to live and work in their host country without legal resident or work permits. Transmigrants, through their numerous activities, create transnational social fields that cross borders. Many of these activities are initiated and developed by non-institutional actors, organized groups of individuals that are informal and not regulated by the state. They form informal social networks of immigrants that serve to promote the flow of people, news and goods. Polish immigrants have no desire to stay in Belgium permanently and they are not interested in obtaining legal status there. The existence of the transnational community completely changes the organization of life in the foreign country. Immigrants live relatively well without any official status and without knowing of the official language of the host country. They do not seek integration with the host society and they remain, sometimes for a long time, suspended between two countries.
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