Internal mobility of international migrants: the case of Belgium

Didier Willaert, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Helga A. G. de Valk, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Research on international migrants traditionally focused on their international moves only. In this study we expand on this work by looking at the internal mobility of international migrants living in Belgium. In our paper we will pay special attention to the case of Brussels, the main urban area in Belgium. This arti-cle studies the level of internal mobility of international migrants as compared to the majority group. We also test whether the same or different patterns of mobility are found among different origin groups in Belgium. Second, we study where international migrants move to by distinguishing between different areas and regions. Finally, we question how and to what extent neighbourhood characteristics are impor-tant for internal mobility of international migrants. Our work is based on the 2001 census and the 2006 register data of Belgium including the total population. The data are unique as beside regular data we also have detailed information on the evaluated and objective neighbourhood characteristics.