Brussels is inhabited by over a million people of different cultural backgrounds and upon arrival, international residents are told that daily life is easy to navigate in English.
It’s true that most citizens – bilingual and native speakers alike – are conversational in English, however, international citizens who do not speak any French or Dutch face a problem when trying to contact emergency or essential public services.
On the regular, residents are in need of contacting public services such as the local police, public hospital reception desks, municipal information services and public waste collection hotlines.
The primary lines, such as 112, have the capability to handle multilingual calls, but for international residents who live in less metropolitan areas where non-emergency lines are handled by the local respondents, everyday essential services remain a hurdle.
The legal framework
Under the Belgian Language Law, any official documents handed over to residents in the Brussels-Capital Region are required to be in either French or Dutch. However, legal guidelines surrounding spoken administrative assistance exist in a grey zone.
Because no language besides French and Dutch is required, essential public service websites can decide for themselves whether or not they will include English translations or employ people who specifically handle phone calls in English.
Bigger municipalities and services the entirety of Brussels can use (e.g IRISbox) adjust their websites to accommodate English speakers, but smaller communes still adhere to the two-language law.
Consulting websites
Language options are, in most cases, one of two: a website with multiple language options, yet only automated messages in Dutch and French when seeking advice over the phone, or only two language options on the website and by telephone.
The former situation is more common in the bigger municipalities, save for Anderlecht, whose commune website doesn’t have an English translation option, whereas the latter applies mostly to smaller municipalities such as Koekelberg, Evere, Etterbeek and Jette.
Many websites have great English translation that overlap perfectly with the Dutch and English versions. For other cities, English language options exist, but these are limited.
Brussels' fifth biggest municipality, Ixelles, has this problem for their two biggest websites.
The website for the Ixelles police, Polbru, has translations in the required languages and English, though you can not get the same information.
Meanwhile, the City of Brussels' administration site, Ville de Bruxelles Administration, gives you the option to translate in French, English and Dutch, but the English option noticeably has fewer options on the sitemap compared to Dutch and French.
This shows that effort is made, but it is a slow process. In these municipalities, where English has not been fully implemented as a standard communicative language, officials do not have the necessary amount of experience or staff to help English-speaking residents.
Phone calls
A series of test inquiries conducted across key public services highlights that callers seeking assistance in English may encounter varying levels of fluency depending on staff shifts and individual language capacity.
When call attempts were made, results were interesting. Public hotlines for websites that do have English translations, such as Police Zone Polbru, only respond with automated messages in Dutch and French when called.
1733, the non-urgent medical on-call service, specifies on the Dutch translation of their website that the number you dial to choose which language the automated phone message continues on doesn’t determine what language the operator will speak to you in, which can lead to international residents struggling to properly communicate their issue.
Some individual desk staff may switch to English when they notice the language barrier, but callers will have to go through the initial wait time, frequently experience long hold times before being connected to an operator, and hope that the operator is capable of conducting official business in English or risk being immediate transferred and wait more.
What to do?
The best option for English-speaking internationals would be to book appointments at the local offices. Many websites offer online bookings where specific inquiries can be selected.
With the language barrier directly communicated, the residents can be helped face-to-face by the civil servants and point to physical documents.
For residents who face mobility restrictions or lack access to public transportation, physical appointments aren’t always doable. The Brussels Capital region offers its centralised e-government portal, IRISbox. By logging in through itsme or eID reader, residents can bypass phone calls and physical appointments completely.
