This difficulty of gaining access to employment is not without its repercussions on Congolese couples. Women, generally better integrated in the professional world (even if the positions they occupy are mainly restricted to the domestic and health care sectors, which often obliges them to work staggered hours or shift work), are becoming the family ‘money providers.’ The men, incapable of taking care of the financial burden by themselves, are losing their status as the head of the household. ‘We thus come across situations where the children say to their parents: ‘why should I study? To end up on the dole, like Dad?’ recounts the researcher. This parental precarity often becomes synonymous with a loss of authority. For all these reasons a good number of immigrants feel that it has become impossible to bring up their children in Belgium.

‘We are now witnessing macro-social migratory movements towards Anglo-Saxon countries. Certain Congolese, who sometimes have Belgian or French nationality, are leaving to go and live in Canada, England, the United States, etc, with the hope that they will be able to work,’ points out Sarah Demart. ‘Many of those who live in Belgium, educated people, have the impression that their lives are a failure. At the beginning they wanted to settle here in order to accumulate a certain capital and then return home. But the return is always put off. Because of the political situation but also because it is expensive to establish themselves there once again.’

It was in a way a little of this love-hate situation which was being expressed in the December 2011 riots. The love for a country which has become a haven of refuge, the hate for a society which has not kept its integration promises.

In the same way as the Congolese diaspora, Matogne is today trying to reinvent its future. Guided tours are being organised, in order to have people discover other aspects of this neighbourhood, which is today a genuine multicultural crossroads, in which one finds co-habiting Congolese, Belgians, Guineans, Pakistanis, Lebanese, Latin Americans, etc. A way of also approaching questions about African immigration and cultural difference. ‘For certain of the older people Matogne is a disappointment, a failure, because there is too much stigmatisation. For others it shouldn’t be allowed to disappear. Today the Belgians and the Congolese are co-habiting, but you sometimes have the impression that they are living on two opposite planets. There is still a lot of work to be done before we can put prejudices behind us.’