Flanders’ expat community
Expat life in Flanders
Flanders is renowned for its excellent central location in the economic and political heart of (Western) Europe with its capital Brussels as the home of several European institutions and the NATO. It has a long cultural history and high quality of life with an excellent and affordable health care system and overall life style.
The Flemish community therefore boasts an extensive expat community with almost 740,000 foreign nationals and 7,100,000 Belgian nationals. The number of foreign nationals equals 11% of the total population. 6 out of 10 foreign residents have a nationality that belongs to one of Europe’s 27 member states. In the Brussels community the number of expats even rises to 37%, whereas the entire European Union counts just 9% of foreign nationals.
The Flemish government has therefore also set up an integration program to help newcomers to build up the necessary knowledge and skills about life in Flanders. This Civic Integration Program can be seen as a first step to fully play a social role as citizen, parent, employee, entrepreneur… This program consists of a social orientation course about life, work, etc. as well as a Dutch course.
The many expat platforms online also help to get acquainted with other expats quickly, share experiences and learn more about the quirks of Flanders’, f.i. Expat Community, the Bulletin, Expatica, Expat.com, Internations, The Square.Gent, De Community, etc.
Also the International House in Leuven, West-Flanders, and Limburg offer excellent service in getting settled in as an expat the respective areas.
Flanders’ educational system
Flanders’ educational system has an excellent reputation.
Official schools (depending from local authorities or from independent organisations) provide education in Dutch. They are open to every child, and have a great expertise in helping foreign children, thanks to the openness of our society (about 10 % of the population in Flanders does not speak Dutch at home). They are free of charge.
Apart from our official local schools, we also house a wide range of International Schools, thanks to the presence of the EU, the NATO Headquarters and many foreign companies in our country. Some of these have an official background, such as the Japanese or European Schools, others are privately run. They all offer excellent education in a foreign language. The map below offers you a non-exhaustive list of International Schools in Flanders, and Brussels: