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BELGIAN ARMENIANS FACE CHALLENGE OF INTEGRATION AND PRESERVING NATIONAL IDENTITY - NEWSPAPER
news.am
July 27, 2012 | 06:35
YEREVAN. - Aravot daily asked Armenia's Ambassador to Belgium, Avet
Adonts, about the local Armenian community.
"He noted that around 30,000 Armenians live in Belgium, whose 5-6
thousand are those Armenians who were living and working there even
before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Several waves of Armenians
came to this country after 1991; the community was complemented with
Turkish Armenians and Iraqi Armenians.
The other 'level' is those who came from Armenia. Many moved here
because, until recently, Belgium was the sole remaining EU-member
country which kept relatively liberal migration systems.
Speaking about the quantitative element of the local Armenian
community, the Ambassador specifically pointed to the Armenians from
Armenia many of whom, sadly, do not even have those simple rights
that are mandatory to live in Belgium.
In Mr. Adonts' words, there is a matter of integrating into the Belgian
reality and a matter of preserving [national] identity. The latter
is important in terms of preserving the generations as Armenians and
educating [them] as Armenians," Aravot writes.
news.am
July 27, 2012 | 06:35
YEREVAN. - Aravot daily asked Armenia's Ambassador to Belgium, Avet
Adonts, about the local Armenian community.
"He noted that around 30,000 Armenians live in Belgium, whose 5-6
thousand are those Armenians who were living and working there even
before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Several waves of Armenians
came to this country after 1991; the community was complemented with
Turkish Armenians and Iraqi Armenians.
The other 'level' is those who came from Armenia. Many moved here
because, until recently, Belgium was the sole remaining EU-member
country which kept relatively liberal migration systems.
Speaking about the quantitative element of the local Armenian
community, the Ambassador specifically pointed to the Armenians from
Armenia many of whom, sadly, do not even have those simple rights
that are mandatory to live in Belgium.
In Mr. Adonts' words, there is a matter of integrating into the Belgian
reality and a matter of preserving [national] identity. The latter
is important in terms of preserving the generations as Armenians and
educating [them] as Armenians," Aravot writes.