Migration scenario between 1960 and 1974

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Johan Leman, 25 May 2024

I have currently conducted and re-listened to 50 interviews with Belgo-Moroccans and 20 interviews with Belgo-Turks who were actively themselves migrants or children of migrants in the 1960s. A few more will come, but I will conclude at the end of May.

What is striking is that each story is its own separate story. None fully responds to what you might call the proto-type. Currently, however, the following briefly emerges from that:

. First the man came and he lived with other men .

. One always found work .

. After some time, wife and children came over .

. The plan was to return to country of origin after some time .

. One lived among Italians, Belgians, Spaniards .

. One felt welcome.

. One experiences the migrations afterwards as different, both from the   side of the Belgians and from the country of origin.

The latter point in particular intrigues me: why do migrants from those 60-74s feel that the migrants from their regions of origin who came afterwards started to behave so differently? Anyone with clear and experience-based opinions on this is welcome to email them to me. It interests me.

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