Is Belgium, Belgium? Or is it Flanders and Wallonia?

When Natasha Biryukova arrived in Liege from Moscow in 1995, she was shocked to find out that her new homeland was not really Belgium, but rather French-speaking Wallonia. 

"I came from the former USSR, and knew how people lived in Uzbekistan thousands of miles away," she says. 

"But now, when I turn on my TV I only know what's happening in Wallonia." 

She said people there know nothing about the lives of their Flemish neighbours just a few miles north. 

Ms Biryukova is not alone. Immigrants settling in Belgium end up on either side of a fault line that baffles many. 

"Foreigners did not study Belgian history at school - whether they are in Wallonia or Flanders, for them, this is Belgium," says Palestinian-born Hamdam al-Damiri of Cripel, an immigrant centre in Liege. More...

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