Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Immigration Office (Office des étrangers/ Dienst Vreemdelingenzaken).
1.2. Contact organisation unit
Statistics Unit
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
Boulevard Pacheco, 44
B-1000 Bruxelles
Belgium
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Not requested.
2.1. Metadata last certified
25 June 2024
2.2. Metadata last posted
25 June 2024
2.3. Metadata last update
25 June 2024
3.1. Data description
Data collection on seasonal workers statistics based on Article 26 of Directive 2014/36/EU on the conditions of entry and stay of third-country nationals for the purpose of employment as seasonal workers.
The following datasets are collected under this framework:
Authorisations for the purpose of seasonal work by status, length of validity, economic sector and citizenship (migr_ressw1_1);
Authorisations issued for the purpose of seasonal work by economic sector, sex and citizenship (migr_ressw2).
Directive 2014/36/EU was transposed at national level on 07 May 2020.
3.2. Classification system
See table 3.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables on Seasonal Workers’.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Migration and asylum – Residence permits statistics, Seasonal Workers.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables on Seasonal Workers’.
3.5. Statistical unit
As requested in technical guidelines, number of permits/authorisation/ notification (and not the number of single individuals). As a consequence, the double counting of the same person is allowed.
3.6. Statistical population
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables on Seasonal Workers’.
3.7. Reference area
Belgium.
3.8. Coverage - Time
See table 3.8. in annex ‘Quality report tables on Seasonal Workers’.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Number of authorisations for seasonal work.
Calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
As a federal public organisation, the Immigration Office is responsible for the application of the Law of 15 December 1980 and the Royal Decree of 8 October 1981 on access to the territory, residence, settlement and removal of foreign nationals. Concerning residence permits, the Immigration Office is responsible for the examination of applications for authorisation to stay (introduced abroad or in Belgium), changes of status, acquisition of long-term residence status and ending/withdrawal of stays. In the specific case of seasonal workers, the Immigration Office is responsible for the part of the decision related to the stay and incorporates the part of the decision related to work in a single document. More information are accessible on the website of the Immigration Office (Saisonnier | IBZ).
The Federal Public Service Home Affairs was officially designated as Other national statistical authoritiy (Other-national-statistical-authorities) and was nominated as responsible for the transmission of residence permits' statistics including statistics on seasonal workers.
Information on the existence of a national policy for (not) releasing data before a certain time after the end of reference period has passed:
All statistical data are published within the regulatory deadlines. No national policy prevents us from publishing statistics before this deadline. Statistics are published when their quality is considered sufficient.
Required confidentiality by law and signed legal confidentiality commitments by survey staff:
All the officials of the Immigration Office have signed a declaration aimed at protecting the confidentiality of data.
Potential micro-data access for research purposes by external users and confidentiality provisions applied:
Access to micro-data is possible while respecting the general data protection regulation (regulation 2016/679). More information on the procedure implemented in this context can be requested from the Data Protection Officer of the Immigration Office. The contact details are available on the website of the Immigration Office:
Statistics on seasonal workers are currently published once a year within 6 months after the end of the reference year. A monthly publication is currently being developed at national level in the framework of single permits (including statistics on seasonal workers).
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Not applicable.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Annual publications on seasonal workers are accessible from 2022 reference year on the website of Eurostat. A monthly publication on the website of the Immigration Office is currently being developed.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
No Belgian online database directly accessible to the public. The statistics are available on the Eurostat website.
Some elements are available on the Website of the immigration Office:
To be defined when signing the memorandum of understanding to access the microdata.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
The metadata are complete and accessible online on the website of Eurostat.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not applicable.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
This document gives some explanations on the methodology used to produce statistics on seasonal workers. In the framework of a new monthly publication on this topic at national level, a detailed presentation of the methodology will be available on the website of the Immigration Office before the end of 2024.
10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate
Not applicable.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
The quality assessment is documented in this document. Additional elements will be available on the website of the Immigration Office before the end of 2024.
11.1. Quality assurance
The principles of the Code of Practice, together with the general principles of quality management, form a common quality framework for the European Statistical System. These principles were followed when developing these specific statistics.
The Consultation Committee, where the federal government (including the Federal Public Service Home Affairs) and the governments of the Regions and Communities are represented, approved on Wednesday 31 May 2017 the Belgian Commitment on Confidence in Statistics as required by Regulation n°223/2009 on European Statistics.
The last peer review in the framework of the European Statistical System took place in 2021. Results are accessible on the following website:
The statistics collected are used in official publications and by a wide range of users at national, European and International level.
These statistics are used by national administrations, academic researchers and civil society groups working on a wide range of topics including the integration of immigrants, the development and monitoring of national immigration procedures, and the projection of the future population and labour force.
At European level, the main users of these statistics are Eurostat and DG Home.
These statistics are used in several publications of the Commission, as well as in the preparation of regular reports, policy proposals and analysis. The statistics also provide an input to the European Migration Network (EMN) studies and reports that address specific issues of current policy importance.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not available.
12.3. Completeness
See table 12.3. in annex ‘Quality report tables on Seasonal Workers’.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Not applicable.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Accuracy is currently considered as sufficient from 2022 year of reference.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Due to the very important undercoverage / misidentification of the group in the different databases and the very poor resulting quality, 2020 and 2021 statistics were not transmitted.
Following a modification of some practices in terms of registration and inclusion of more precise categories related to the group, the level of coverage is considered as sufficient from 2022 reference year.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Data collected in the Population Register, the database on visas, the database of the Immigration Office, the database on Single Permits are confronted each year to measure error. Since important divergence were observed for this group, the results are produced by combining all data sources.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.4. Processing error
The main category is linked to the creation of new events / categories in the different databases without information of the Statistics Unit.
A continuous monitoring of the different modalities of each variable was developed to identify these cases before the statistical treatment.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Number of days (on average) after the end of the reference period at which the country is able to report the first/preliminary data, at the earliest : 120 days.
easons for possible long production of the first/preliminary data and plans to improve the situation : late registration, limited number of persons/experts wRho can produce / validate the results and discrepancies between registrations in the different systems.
Number of days (on average) after the end of the reference period at which the country is able to report the final data, at the earliest : Approximately 150.
Reasons for possible long production of the final data and plans to improve the situation : limited number of persons/experts who can produce / validate the results and discrepancies between registrations in the different systems.. Additional colleagues are currently being trained to support the production/validation process in the future.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not applicable.
14.2. Punctuality
See table 14.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables on Seasonal Workers’.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Data are comparable over the national territory.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables on Seasonal Workers’.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Not applicable.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Consistency between data sources (database on single permits, database of the Immigration Office, database on visas and population register) is controlled at individual levels
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Annual statistics are equal to the sum of monthly statistics.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Issued permits, renewals and withdrawals are coming from the same source. No issue in terms of coherence was detected.
Not available
17.1. Data revision - policy
Exceptionally, data are corrected / revised due to: 1/ error of transmission (wrong reference period, errors in data compilation…), 2/ methodological improvements or introduction of new data sources.
17.2. Data revision - practice
See table 17.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables on Seasonal Workers’.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
See table 18.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables on Seasonal Workers’.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Data is collected monthly and is consolidated annually.
18.3. Data collection
Data are integrated by the IT department of the Federal Public Services Home Affairs into a Data Warehouse from which the data is imported and examined in SAS. Data are processed, validated and the results are transmitted annually to Eurostat.
18.4. Data validation
The following controls are performed:
checking of totals consistency
checking of magnitude of changes over time
visual validation
checking the data integrity over each processing step
checking if the double counting cases are excluded
checking the consistency between issued first permits, renewals and withdrawals
checking the consistency between annual and monthly statistics
analyse the statistics reported by other countries
checking the consistency between statistics transmitted to Eurostat and statistics published at national level
18.5. Data compilation
Data are imported in a data warehouse. Data are subsequently treated using a statistical software (SAS) using a standardised procedure.
Data collection on seasonal workers statistics based on Article 26 of Directive 2014/36/EU on the conditions of entry and stay of third-country nationals for the purpose of employment as seasonal workers.
The following datasets are collected under this framework:
Authorisations for the purpose of seasonal work by status, length of validity, economic sector and citizenship (migr_ressw1_1);
Authorisations issued for the purpose of seasonal work by economic sector, sex and citizenship (migr_ressw2).
Directive 2014/36/EU was transposed at national level on 07 May 2020.
25 June 2024
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables on Seasonal Workers’.
As requested in technical guidelines, number of permits/authorisation/ notification (and not the number of single individuals). As a consequence, the double counting of the same person is allowed.
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables on Seasonal Workers’.
Belgium.
Calendar year.
Accuracy is currently considered as sufficient from 2022 year of reference.
Number of authorisations for seasonal work.
Data are imported in a data warehouse. Data are subsequently treated using a statistical software (SAS) using a standardised procedure.
See table 18.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables on Seasonal Workers’.
Statistics on seasonal workers are currently published once a year within 6 months after the end of the reference year. A monthly publication is currently being developed at national level in the framework of single permits (including statistics on seasonal workers).
Number of days (on average) after the end of the reference period at which the country is able to report the first/preliminary data, at the earliest : 120 days.
easons for possible long production of the first/preliminary data and plans to improve the situation : late registration, limited number of persons/experts wRho can produce / validate the results and discrepancies between registrations in the different systems.
Number of days (on average) after the end of the reference period at which the country is able to report the final data, at the earliest : Approximately 150.
Reasons for possible long production of the final data and plans to improve the situation : limited number of persons/experts who can produce / validate the results and discrepancies between registrations in the different systems.. Additional colleagues are currently being trained to support the production/validation process in the future.
Data are comparable over the national territory.
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables on Seasonal Workers’.
