Editing Brussels (section)

===Nationalities===
{| class="wikitable floatright"
|+Largest groups of foreign residents (2022)<ref>{{Cite report|url=https://ibsa.brussels/sites/default/files/documents/1.3_population_Nationalit%C3%A9s_20220926_0.xlsx|title=Population – Nationalités|publisher=Brussels Institute for Statistics and Analysis|language=fr|access-date=24 September 2023|format=XLS|at=Tabel 1.3.1.4 – Principales nationalités actuelles : 2022 (au 1er janvier)|archive-date=17 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231017125020/https://ibsa.brussels/sites/default/files/documents/1.3_population_Nationalit%C3%A9s_20220926_0.xlsx|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
|{{flagu|France}} || 68,418
|-
|{{flagu|Romania}} || 45,243
|-
|{{flagu|Italy}} || 35,154
|-
|{{flagu|Morocco}} || 33,955
|-
|{{flagu|Spain}} || 30,609
|-
|{{flagu|Poland}} || 20,060
|-
|{{flagu|Portugal}} || 18,968
|-
|{{flagu|Bulgaria}} || 13,104
|-
|{{flagu|Germany}} || 10,927
|-
|{{flagu|Greece}} || 9,675
{{collapsed infobox section begin|Other countries}}
|-
|{{flagu|Syria}} || 9,555
|-
|{{flagu|Turkey}} || 8,494
|-
|{{flagu|Netherlands}} || 8,287
|-
|{{flagu|Democratic Republic of the Congo}} || 7,836
|-
|{{flagu|India}} || 7,273
|-
|{{flagu|United Kingdom}} || 5,322
|-
|{{flagu|Guinea}} || 5,231
|-
|{{flagu|Brazil}} || 4,834
|-
|{{flagu|Cameroon}} || 4,473
|-
|{{flagu|Algeria}} || 2,996
{{collapsed infobox section end}}
|}

There have been numerous migrations towards Brussels since the end of the 18th century, when the city acted as a common destination for [[political refugees]] from neighbouring or more distant countries, particularly France.{{sfn|Dumont|1996|pp=307–8; 312; 319}} From 1871, many of the [[Communards|Paris Communards]] fled to Brussels, where they received political asylum. Other notable international exiles living in Brussels at the time included [[Victor Hugo]], [[Karl Marx]], [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]], [[Georges Boulanger]], [[Paul Verlaine]], [[Arthur Rimbaud]], and [[Léon Daudet]], to name a few.{{sfn|Dumont|1996|pp=307–8; 312; 319}}<ref>''[[Historia (newspaper)|Historia]]'', no. 680, August 2003, p. 36–37</ref> Attracted by the industrial opportunities, many workers moved in, first from the other [[Belgian provinces]] (mainly rural residents from [[Flanders]]){{sfn|Buron|2016|p=80–82}} and France, then from [[Southern Europe]]an, and more recently from [[Eastern Europe]]an and [[Africa]]n countries.

Since the second half of the 20th century, Brussels has been home to a large number of immigrants and [[émigré]] communities, as well as labour migrants, former foreign students or [[expatriate]]s, and many Belgian families in Brussels can claim at least one foreign grandparent. At the last Belgian census in 1991, 63.7% of inhabitants in Brussels-Capital Region answered that they were Belgian citizens, born as such in Belgium, indicating that more than a third of residents had not been born in the country.<ref name="philippevanparijs">{{cite journal|title=Belgium's new linguistic challenges|author-link=Philippe Van Parijs|author=Van Parijs, Philippe|journal=KVS Express (Supplement to Newspaper de Morgen) March–April 2007|pages=Article from [http://www.kvs.be/kvs_express/KVS_EXPRESS_13_WEB.pdf original source (pdf 4.9&nbsp;MB)] pages 34–36 republished by the Belgian Federal Government Service (ministry) of Economy – Directorate–general Statistics Belgium|url=http://www.statbel.fgov.be/studies/ac699_en.pdf|format=pdf 0.7&nbsp;MB|access-date=5 May 2007|no-pp=true|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613234540/http://www.statbel.fgov.be/studies/ac699_en.pdf|archive-date=13 June 2007}} – The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail.{{cite web|title=Hier ging iets mis &#124; KVS|url=http://www.kvs.be/kvs_express/KVS_EXPRESS_13_WEB.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325104118/http://www.kvs.be/kvs_express/KVS_EXPRESS_13_WEB.pdf|archive-date=25 March 2009|access-date=11 July 2008}}</ref><ref name="ibsa">{{cite web|title=Population et ménages|url=http://www.bruxelles.irisnet.be/cmsmedia/fr/is_2006_population_menages.pdf?uri=43742a9611346ccd0111374fb94f0351|access-date=5 May 2007|publisher=IBSA Cellule statistique – Min. Région Bruxelles-Capitale (Statistical cell – Ministry of the Brussels-Capital Region)|language=French}}{{dead link|date=March 2016}}</ref> According to [[Statbel]] (the Belgian Statistical Office), in 2020, taking into account the nationality of birth of the parents, 74.3% of the population of the Brussels-Capital Region was of foreign origin and 41.8% was of non-European origin (including 28.7% of African origin). Among those aged under 18, 88% were of foreign origin and 57% of non-European origin (including 42.4% of African origin).<ref name="micheletribalat.fr"/>

This large concentration of immigrants and their descendants includes many of [[Moroccans in Belgium|Moroccan]] (mainly [[Riffian people|Riffian]] and other [[Berbers]]) and [[Turkey|Turkish]] ancestry, together with French-speaking black Africans from former [[Belgian overseas colonies|Belgian colonies]], such as the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]], [[Rwanda]] and [[Burundi]]. Many immigrants were [[naturalised]] following the great 1991 reform of the naturalisation process. In 2012, about 32% of city residents were of non-Belgian [[Europe]]an origin (mainly expatriates from France, Romania, Italy, Spain, Poland, and Portugal) and 36% were of another background, mostly from Morocco, Turkey and [[Sub-Saharan Africa]]. Among all major migrant groups from outside the EU, a majority of the permanent residents have acquired Belgian nationality.<ref>{{cite web|title=2.738.486 inwoners van vreemde afkomst in België op 01/01/2012|trans-title=2,738,486 inhabitants of foreign origin in Belgium on 01/01/2012|url=http://www.npdata.be/BuG/155-Vreemde-afkomst/Vreemde-afkomst.htm|access-date=12 March 2013|website=Npdata.be|language=nl|archive-date=22 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191022180710/http://www.npdata.be/BuG/155-Vreemde-afkomst/Vreemde-afkomst.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>