Upon receiving my acceptance to Belgium’s Fulbright program, there was one thing that remained top of mind when I requested my city placement. I was fascinated by Belgium’s role in hosting numerous EU functions, including plenary sessions of the European Parliament. I hoped to spend my grant period in Brussels – a small yet lively city known for its sprawling green parks and towering Gothic cathedrals – fondly referred to as the heart of Europe.
A few weeks later, I was delighted to discover that my Commission had placed me in my city of choice. I was even more excited when grantees were given the opportunity to apply for a spot at Fulbright’s annual EU-NATO seminar. Organized by Belgium’s Fulbright Commission, the seminar included visits to institutions like the European Commission, European Parliament, and NATO Headquarters. Meetings were also arranged with representatives of the U.S. Mission to the European Union, the U.S. Mission to NATO, and the U.S. Embassy to Luxembourg.
Prior to arriving at the seminar, I had become increasingly familiar with Belgium’s own political and cultural landscape. Its three Regions – the Flemish Region, Brussels-Capital Region and Walloon Region – are administered by different governments. Each Region has its own language; The Flemish Region is Dutch-speaking and the Walloon region is French-speaking with the exception of a small German community in the Liège Province of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital is formally both French and Dutch-speaking, though close to 90% of its occupants speak French. The Regions are deeply politically divided, and Belgians often struggle to reconcile their differences. Early into my grant, I was warned that if I used my French in Flanders, I might find myself at the receiving end of an angry glare or two.
My time in the city revealed yet another division. I discovered that the longest stalemate in Belgian political history resulted from a dispute over former Belgian Prime minister Charles Michel’s decision to support a UN migration agreement. Indeed, anti-immigration sentiment throughout the city was striking to me. My students, the majority of whom are the children of north African immigrants, also detected these sentiments. They seemed to respond by clinging more tightly to their non-Belgian identities. When I described myself as Asian-American, my students struggled to understand the function of the hyphen. Many refused to identify as Belgian at all, out of fear that doing so would signal a rejection of their family’s country of origin.
Thus, it came as little surprise that our visit to the European Court of Justice during the EU-NATO seminar coincided with a hearing related directly to a migration issue. The Belgian government had been brought before the court to defend its policy on family reunification. Fulbright delegates listened to attorneys detail a case involving a refugee who fled his home country and was granted asylum in Belgium. Years later, as a naturalized citizen, he attempted to bring his remaining family members to Belgium. Belgian law requires that asylum applicants visit the nearest Belgian Embassy for an in-person screening. Unfortunately, wartime circumstances rendered this family incapable of safely traveling to the nearest Belgian post. The Court sought to determine whether EU states should allow asylees to apply for reunification without an in-person embassy visit in exceptional circumstances.
This debate was particularly piquant to me. Prior to embarking on my Fulbright, I spent two years working with refugees and asylees. I watched as legal advocates struggled to navigate American immigration policies whilst attempting to reunify Afghan families following the crisis in Kabul. As I sat in the European Court of Justice this past February, thousands of miles away from home, I found it striking that the Belgian government and ECJ were struggling to reconcile the same challenges in a slightly different form. After spending several months navigating cultural differences on a daily basis at home and at work, I had become exceedingly aware of the irreducible plurality of human perspective. Yet there I was – in Luxembourg City, listening as European member states made arguments not unlike those I had heard before.
It was that day in the ECJ that I recognized the true value of my Fulbright exchange. Belgium is no larger than the size of Maryland, yet its citizens struggle to maintain unity in the face of seemingly disparate ways of thinking. Even still, it manages to form a federal government after months of political stalemate. In many ways, Belgium’s difficulties serve as a magnification of the United States’ own internal challenges. There is power in drawing these parallels; the recognition that our own issues are not so unique provides us with a wider network of solutions.
Perhaps most importantly, my nine months overseas reminded me that interaction fosters greater understanding, something that we are desperately lacking. I am the first American that most of my students have ever met. Over the course of my time here, they shared so much about themselves and asked me a seemingly endless stream of questions. Their views often differed from mine, but I can say one thing in earnest – by the end of the year, we understood one another.
In Belgium and the United States alike, a deep resistance to diversity creates damage. Cultural exchange fosters understanding, which in turn cultivates empathy. I depart Belgium with hope that this empathy will someday reduce the barriers that keep us from one another.
Alexandra Prendergast is a 2022-2023 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Belgium. After graduating with honors from Wesleyan University with a bachelor’s degree in the College of Social Studies and Government, Alexandra spent two years living and working in Boston as a Project Analyst at law firm Mintz Levin. In addition to her work inside the classroom as an ETA, Alexandra has engaged with the community through a volunteer position with Serve the City.
Articles are written by Fulbright grantees and do not reflect the opinions of the Fulbright Commission, the grantees’ host institutions, or the U.S. Department of State.