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Although freedom of language use was guaranteed by the Constitution, language has always been a contested issue in Belgium. The current political model is based on the pacification of the conflicts between the two main language communities and it is the result of a quasi-continuous process of state reform that starts from official language use in public contexts as the core political cleavage. This resulted in a complex organisation of public and semi-public institutions. This pacification model reflects the political conditions before 1960. Since then, Brussels has become a city of migration. Nowadays half the population has an immigrant background. The changing composition of the population obviously has an impact on linguistic practices. Within all different domains of language use, Brussels is characterised by growing multilingualism. The question raises to what extent this situation affects the traditional structure of the pacification model that aims at regulating the contact situations between the two traditional languages. This Chapter is based on survey research. It explores the consequences of language use within a multilingual urban context. After a brief historical introduction, language use in the multilingual urban context of Brussels will be analysed within different domains. To conclude, the impact on the bilingual institutional setting will be discussed.
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