THE SECOND GENERATION EDUCATION IN MOLENBEEK: A MULTIFACETED CRISIS

Molenbeek in Brussels, historically known as the attraction point to Moroccan and Turkish immigrants for its industrial opportunities. Being elementarily educated immigrants appeared as low skilled worker. After industrial declination, these ethnic groups changed their attitude towards education and percentage in taking formal education is increasing steadily. However, performance gaps in education between natives and non-natives are still evident. Their education was interrupted due to drop out or reappearance in the same grade at school. Despite vocationally skilled, non-natives are wrongly represented in the prevailing job market. This is one of the many reasons, why second generation immigrants, especially young boys have been involved in anti-social activities more than the native ones. Saturated schools, shortage of infrastructure, language barrier, and economic depression are the general complications. Socio-political discrimination has made the situation more intricate. In this text, it was aimed at constructing a set of reflections on the present educational scenario of the second generation immigrants under socio-cultural aspects.