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Following the
recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, there has been growing interest
in the suburbs where young Belgians of Moroccan origin live. This has once
again raised the question of their integration into Belgian society. These
young people living in the suburbs of Belgian cities were born and/or raised
and educated in Belgium, yet most of them have not succeeded academically, are
unemployed, and many of them live as part of fractured groups culturally
isolated from both their parents' culture and the wider society around them. This
preliminary study is based on field work undertaken in the Borgerhout neighborhood
in the city of Antwerp, whose population is predominantly of Moroccan origin.
It highlights and examines the violent identity rupture experienced by third-generation
youth and their experience of the quest for a meaningful and secure identity.