1998-2000
An anonymous individual record linkage between the 1991 census file and the migration records for the period 1981-1995. This databank (National Data Bank on Migration) permit a detailed analysis of socio-economic and household characteristic that immigrants bring into each municipality or zone in 1991, and similarly, an analysis of characteristics that emigrants take away in 1991. As a result, the population profiles of municipalities or zones can be studied as they change through the influence of differential migration. To this end, the migration basins of Belgium's urban centres have been demarcated, and within each bassin (or 'catchment area'), several zones were also delimited corresponding with the main urban area, the suburban areas with and without immigration pressure, and the rural zones, again with and without immigration pressure.