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Soils irrigated with raw wastewater for many years accumulate trace metals, especially in the surface horizon. We do not know, however, to what extent the metals migrate down the profile and whether they accumulate in deeper horizons. We assessed the migration of trace metals in the suburbs of Paris where market gardens had been irrigated with wastewater for more than 100 years. Within a soil series, we compared metals in the polluted soils with those of a reference soil of the same kind. We sampled by horizons three representative Luvisol profiles in the irrigated area and a fourth profile selected as a reference just outside the irrigated area. Large quantities of Zn, Pb, Cd and Cu appeared to have accumulated in the topsoil, at the base of which concentrations diminished markedly. There appeared to be appreciable migration into the subsoil only at the most intensely irrigated site. By relating the total trace metal contents to the total iron contents we could detect anomalous values and identify migration into the subsurface horizons more sensitively. This approach was tested first with the endogenous metal Cr, then with metal pollutants. We showed that Zn, Pb, Cd and Cu migrated downwards in all three irrigated soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]