Luxemburg women in Brussels during the interwar period

During the interwar period many young women migrated from the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg to Brussels. This migration is somewhat historical studies on immigration, although between 1920 and 1938 their numbers rose from 5,793 to 11,185. The industrial recovery after the First World War and the Belgian legislation which was favourable to Luxemburg subjects, contributed to this immigration. This article is based on the alien files preserved in the Brussels City Archives from the Bureau des etrangers, the Population Service and the Public Security of the Police Central Division. The examined sample is limited to the city of Brussels itself and to women of Luxemburg nationality of whom an individual file exists. The young women came from all over Luxemburg: from the industrial south, the administrative and commercial center and the rural north. The Moselle region provided the least migrants because of its relative distance from Brussels. Most of the migrating women, however, came from the rural regions in the north of Luxemburg and lived in the rich suburbs of Brussels (the areas of the Avenue Louise and the quartier Leopold). The overwhelming majority of the women, 85,1%, worked as domestic servants in bourgeois or noble families, the rest was active in a number of different sectors (education, confection, religion, etc.). Most were very young when they arrived, between 15 and 19 years old. 80% of the women arrived before their twenty-fifth birthday and more than 90% before their thirtieth. The oldest were among the religious, the teachers and the hotel servants. Except in 1930, more than 90% of the girls were unmarried.