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Comparative Approaches to Tackling
Illegal Migration and Undeclared Work
Dušan DRBOHLAV
drbohlav@natur.cuni.cz
Charles University in Prague,
Faculty of Science,
Department of Social Geography and Regional Development
This presentation fits the following projects:
► Eurocores—ECRP, Project of the Czech Science
Foundation GA CR, No. CPR/06/E001
► IDEA - Mediterranean and Eastern European Countries as
new immigration destinations in the European Union - 6th
Framework Programme, No. 44446
► Investigative plan of MSM 0021620831 financed by the
Ministry of Education, Youth and Physical Education of CR.
Structure
• Introduction
• Mesuring, statistics, definitions, concepts
• Main forms of illegal immigration
• The European reality
• Driving forces
• Risks and impacts
• Policies
• Regularisations
• Policy recommendations
Background studies used - selection
• Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
providing for sanctions against employers of third-country nationals who are illegally staying or
working in breach of their residence status, Brussels, draft, March 2007.
• CLANDESTINO project, Funded by the European Commission, DG Research, Sixth Framework
Programme, Thematic Priority 8.1, Policy-related Research. Scientific Support to Policies,
coordinator – ELIAMEP, Greece.
• REGINE, Regularisations in Europe, Study on practices in the area of regularisation of illegally
staying third-country nationals in the Member States of the EU (Ref. JLS/B4/2007/05) done by
researchers from the International Centre for Migration Policy Development – ICMPD, Austria.
• Drbohlav, D. (ed.): Nelegální ekonomické aktivity migrantů (Česko v evropském kontextu). Praha,
Karolinum 2008.
• … (PROMINSTAT, EC project)
Basic thesis I
• Informality is ‗‗alive, well and growing in the post-
industrial West‘‘ (Waldinger and Lapp, 1993, p. 6).
• … a necessary feature of economic development under
contemporary capitalism, ‗‗a major structural feature of
our society‘‘ (Castells and Portes, 1989)
Basic thesis II
• Illegal immigration subverts a society's
legal order and undermines or perverts a
variety of foreign and domestic policy
priorities…
… it is something we have to combat!
Restrictions - „against the wind“
• Globalization, transnationalism …
• Expanding human rights regimes
• Liberalization of markets
• Decentralization of migratory
power/responsibilities
• Demand on the side of developed
countries etc.
Policies and their failure
• Western democracies - their common failure to manage
migration effectively and efficiently, as demonstrated by
the widening gap between the migration-policy goals
they set themselves and the actual results achieved.
• Although expenditure on immigration-control
mechanisms increased sharply in the 1990s, the
intended policy goals were not achieved.
• Paradox - the 25 richest countries are probably spending
US$ 25-30 billion a year on immigration enforcement
and asylum processing … (Martin 2003)
Measuring illegal/irregular
phenomena
• …―it follows that any description of the
nature and extent of the phenomenon has
to rely on certain indirect methods, which
in turn depend on the availability of
alternative statistical indicators in a given
country‘ Jandl (2004).
Measuring illegal/irregular
phenomena (flows)
• To estimate the extent of annual inflows of illegally resident third-
country nationals, Member States use a range of indicators linked to
the phenomenon:
- the numbers of refused entries and removals,
- apprehensions of illegal migrants at the border
or in the country,
- rejected applications for asylum or other forms of international
protection,
- applications for national regularisation procedures.
… To these numbers must be added the considerable number of
those who do not apply for any form of international protection
(either because they entered legally or they ―overstay‖)
Measuring illegal/irregular
phenomena (stocks)
• To infer the size of the irregular population,
indirect methods are often used such as
comparing different population censuses
and registers, including data on births and
deaths…
– (The US and several South American countries either
produce or otherwise do not deny illegal population
estimates by reputable analysts. Furthermore, in the
US case, national censuses are thought to capture
between half and three quarters of that population).
Measuring „illegal/irregular
phenomena“
• “residual” estimation technique - comparing the census data with
other registries of immigrants and identifying any differences (USA,
Spain … the UK).
• the “multiplier” estimation technique as producing better
estimates of undocumented migrants (Jandl 2004) (based on the
assumption that there is a stable relation between the unknown
variable, which is the subject of enquiry, and a variable that can be
measured).
• In relation to the stock of third-country nationals with no or limited
rights to work that are exceeded, demographic methods, such as
comparing age structures, birth and death rates of illegal residents
with those of legally resident foreigners have been used in migration
studies.
Measuring “illegal/irregular
phenomena” (cont.)
• to survey experts on the subject and using their estimations to
come up with an appropriate multiplier
• ―evidence based on regularisation data‖ can also be used for
estimations of immigrant stocks in the country and, to some extent,
the extent to which they are working in various sectors
• Various surveys
• Estimates of the extent of irregular foreign employment often draw
upon the figures of the national Labour Inspectorates, which
undertake checks at work sites and other types of enforcement
activities. …these routine control checks do not constitute a random
sample of all workplaces (Jandl 2004) …
… extrapolations
Visa / entries
Statistics on refusals Political asylum
Residence, work permits
Administrative
Entry / border
statistics
Infractions Stay
Work or job
Direct Regularisations Mass
measures Exceptional
Without sample Delphi “method“
Surveys “Snowball“ technique
At the time of regularis.
With sample On employment
On mobility/border flows
Biographical
Comparison of Expected populations
sources Pairing of files
Sex-ratio
Common law crimes
Indirect Inferences from
estimates secondary events Births and deaths
School attendance statistics
Social/health benefits
Work statistics National data
Source: Delaunay, Tapinos 1998 according to Tapinos 1999
Data problems
• Data on irregular migration – including both numbers and also demographic and
socio-economic profiles - are scarce, often unreliable and not usually comparable
between states and over time. The types of conceptual problems covered in the
preceding subsection are one reason why. Different States, for example, define
irregular migrants in different ways, and migrants can shift overnight between regular
and irregular statuses.
• There is also a series of more practical problems. Some irregular migrants can be
recorded – such as asylum seekers whose applications are rejected, or those
apprehended at borders without proper documentation. Most estimates of irregular
migration simply present data recorded from sources like these. The problem is that
recorded irregular migration represents only a proportion of the totality of irregular
migration – and estimates of what that proportion is are largely guesswork and vary
widely. Most sources agree that the majority of irregular migrants are not recorded
(Clarke et al. 2003), and this is probably unsurprising given the desire of many of
these migrants not to be identified by the authorities for fear of prosecution or
deportation.
• Another problem is access to data – however limited it may be - that has been
collected. In many states such data are collected by enforcement agencies and are
not made publicly available. Alternatively, information and data that may establish a
person‘s irregular status are frequently dispersed between different agencies such as
government departments, the police and employment offices, making cooperation
and access to data difficult (Koser 2005, Pinkerton et al. 2004).
Data problems
• International cooperation on data collection is even more
problematic.
• There is no authoritative source on global trends and
numbers in irregular migration, and the available sources
are not comprehensive:
– The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD), through its SOPEMI initiative, for example, collates
data from various industrialised nations, which usually include
estimates on irregular migration - although this is not the focus.
Similarly, the UN Statistics Division collects data on global
trends that include estimates on irregular migration. And IOM
regularly publishes data on human trafficking, which comprises
only a proportion of all irregular migration (Koser 2005).
Terms/Definitions
• Irregular, in irregular position, illegal,
undocumented, unauthorised, clandestine,
etc...
– used in various ways, in various contexts,
overlapping …
Terms/Definitions
• Trafficking of human beings is defined as: ―the recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat, or use of
force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the
abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving
of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control
over another person, for the purpose of exploitation‖.
• The smuggling of migrants is defined as: ―The procurement, in order to
obtain, directly or indirectly a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal
entry of a person into a state Party of which the person is not a national or a
permanent resident‖
(Sources: UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons (2000); UN Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land,
Sea and Air (2000))
– A conceptual complexity arises because migrants‘ status can change …
Terms/Definitions – informal
economy
• what is to be understood as undeclared
work - the definition is: ―productive
activities that are lawful as regards to their
nature, but are not declared to the public
authorities, taking into account the
differences in the regulatory system
between Member States” (Renooy 2004).
Main forms of illegal immigration
• Undocumented/unauthorized entrants. These are nationals of one state who enter
another state clandestinely. Most such entrants cross land borders, but sea routes
are also employed regularly, and wherever inspection regimes are permeable, so
are air routes. In all instances, the entrant manages to avoid detection and hence,
inspection. Increasing proportions of such clandestine immigrants are smuggled or
trafficked.
• Individuals who are inspected upon entry into another state, but gain admission by
using fraudulent documents. The fraud in question may involve the person's
identity and/or the documentation in support of admission. A variant of this class of
entries involves the making of fraudulent asylum claims where issues of identity,
documentation, and the narrative in support of the asylum claim may be falsified.
• Violators of the duration of a visa. These include individuals who enter another
state properly but "willfully" overstay their period of legal stay, thus lapsing into
irregular status.
• Violators of the terms and conditions of a visa. Nationals of one state who enter
another state with the proper documents and procedures, but at some point violate
the terms of their visa. The most frequent such violation is the acceptance of
employment (by Papademetriou 2005)
- Many foreigners also find themselves in temporary technical violation of the
host nation's immigration laws in what are otherwise legal entries and essentially
legal stays. For instance, a business visitor may engage in a business activity that
requires a different visa classification.
Main forms of illegal immigration
• ―Illegally staying third-country nationals‖ who are in the
EU and who are either:
• staying illegally in the EU. These include those who
entered the EU illegally and ‗overstayers‘ who entered
the EU legally, but whose rights to stay have expired;
or
• staying legally in the Member State but who have no or
limited rights to work, and the limited rights are being
exceeded. These include students, researchers,
tourists and legally present family members of third-
country nationals who do not have the right to work or
only have the right to work a specified number of hours
per week (Proposal 2007).
Main forms of illegal immigration
• Illegal economic activities carried out by migrants are understood
to be situations wherein a migrant does not have the appropriate
residence permit and work/business permit, or has a valid
residence permit (e.g., tourist visa) but is working illegally (does
not have a work permit or a trade licence).
• Quasi-legal economic activities carried out by migrants are
understood to be situations wherein a migrant has a valid
residence permit and a work permit/trade licence, but breaches
laws (Labour Act, Trade Licensing Act, etc.) in a severe manner,
e.g., works in a different region, branch, profession or for a
different employer than permitted; smuggles goods; participates in
disguised employment (“Švarc system”), etc.
• - Studies done in Drbohlav (ed.) 2008
ENTRIES
ENTRY LEGAL ILLEGAL (false papers,
(administratively) clandestine passage)
Legal Illegal Illegal Legal
RESIDENCE (permit) (invalid or no permit) (no permit) (regularisation,
marriage)
Legal and Illegal (no Inactive Illegal Illegal Inactive Illegal (no Legal and
EMPLOYMENT inactive permit, pop. (undeclared) (undeclared) population permit, inactive
pop. undeclared) undeclared) pop.
Source: Tapinos 1999 (modified)
Presentation of the various
situations in which foreign
migrants can find themselves
• Proposal for a
DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
providing for sanctions against employers of third-country nationals who are illegally staying or working in breach
of their residence status Brussels, draft, version 30.3.2007 11h SEC(2007) XXXX
For the employed
illegally staying
TCN:
- Underpaid For companies e.g.: For Member State For EU: For third country::
(nat / reg / local
- Risk of exploitation (1) Company - Impacts on national - Remittances from
levels):
employing: aggregate GDP employed illegally
- No social security lower wages - Impacts on GDP staying TCNs to
- etc.
For nationals: countries of origin,
(2) Other - etc.
- Downward companies: - etc,
Impacts
pressure on wages distortion of
and conditions competition
- Xenophobia
Illegal employment Illegal employment Human trafficking victim
(a pull factor for illegal
immigration)
Overstayer
Illegal immigration
(also driven by other Enter legally with Enter on their own Smuggled by facilitator Human trafficking
pull factors and by valid visa/ study visa,
push factors) seasonal work permit
etc.
Reality
• So-called irregular migrants make up 30–50 percent of
all migration to Western industrialized countries ...
• The IOM surmises that approximately 4 million people
are smuggled across borders every year.
• In the United States alone, there may be as many as 12
million illegal migrants, with approximately 4,000 illegal
border crossings every day.
• Half of all illegal migrants have some interaction with
smuggling or trafficking networks—a global industry that
generates approximately $10 billion per year (Adamson
2006).
Reality
• Illegal/irregular migration has been by far the fastest rising single form of
migration during the past 10 years.
• A rough estimate about the share of unauthorized immigrants in the world's
immigrant stock might put it at between 15 and 20 percent of the total (between
30 and 40 million immigrants). Among these, the US has the largest absolute number
of irregular immigrants with between 10 and 11 million, about 30 percent of its total
foreign born population, probably followed by South Africa, where estimates vary
wildly but all are in the several millions.
• Continental Europe also has a large number of unauthorized immigrants, with the
southern parts of the European Union accounting for the largest absolute numbers.
Altogether, Europe probably "hosts" between seven and eight million irregular
immigrants, although that number fluctuates in accordance with regularisation
programs, such as the recent one in Spain. These fluctuations tend to be cyclical
because large proportions of those who regularize typically fall back into illegal status
when they cannot meet the conditions for legal status.
• Mexico, the world's most proficient source of unauthorized (and legal) immigrants,
also hosts about a million irregular immigrants of its own, many of them American
retirees who have settled in Mexico without official permission.
• Canada uses a "working guesstimate" of about half-a-million unauthorized immigrants
(Papademetriou 2005).
Reality – stocks (Proposal 2007)
• Most estimates that have so far been available relate to the period prior to
2004 and the accession of the EU-10 and include nationals from these
countries and Bulgaria and Romania as third country nationals. This makes
it difficult to present a clear overview of the situation in the EU and in
individual Member States.
• Estimates of the total number of illegal migrants in the EU vary; 2,000,000-
3,000,000 (Global Migration Perspectives 2005); 4,500,000 (IOM 2000);
and, seven to eight million (United Nations' Trends in Total Migrant Stock:
The 2003 Revision) …
• Those states with the highest absolute numbers of irregular residents
include Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Poland and the United
Kingdom.
• Problem – regularisations …
Statistics – stocks (Proposal 2007)
• Estimates of irregular immigrants in Europe in millions - based on
Düvell (2006) – a selection:
– Germany: 0.5-1.1
– UK: 0.05-0.5
– France: 1.0
– Italy: 0.57-1.1
– Spain: 0.5-1.0
– Netherlands: 0.11-0.16
– Greece: 0.35-0.7
– Belgium: <0.1
– Portugal: 0.04-0.2
– Sweden: <0.01
– Austria: 0.25
– Norway: 0.01-0.02
– …… Total: 4.14-7.34
Reality – flows
• The number of illegal immigrants in the EU was
estimated to increase by 500,000 per annum by Wiener
Zeitung (2005), and by 350,000 according to Global
Migration Perspectives 2005. However, if the available
estimates for the individual 21 Member States are
aggregated the estimate is considerably higher. This
calculation suggests that there is an annual inflow of
illegal migrants to the EU of between 893,000 and
923,300 (Proposal 2007)
Statistics – flows
• According to a new online database on irregular migration established in the
framework of a European Commission funded research project on irregular
migration there are between 2.8 to 6 million migrants without a right to
residence in the European Union and thus many fewer than previously
assumed.
• The database forms part of the CLANDESTINO project in which ICMPD
was involved as a partner institute. A wide range of background information,
including country reports on 12 EU Member States and 3 non-EU countries,
a report on ethical issues in researching irregular migration and a report on
methods to estimate irregular migration are available from the two project
related websites. For more information,
visit:
http://clandestino.eliamep.gr (country reports and research briefs),
http://irregular-migration.hwwi.net (database).
2000-2003: Stocks of Irregular Foreign Residents in the EU15
More
Estimates of irregular foreign residents
information
Country Population
Year
minimum central maximum
EU15 2002 310 208 876 - - -
Selected countries in descending order of population size
1 000 000 1 500 000
Germany 2003 82 536 680 - table
1.2% 1.8%
United 310 000 430 000 570 000
2001 58 999 781 table
Kingdom 0.5% 0.7% 1.0%
702 156
Italy 2002 56 993 742 - - table
1.2%
650 551
Spain 2002 40 964 244 - - table
1.6%
77 721 104 990 132 262
Netherlands 2002 16 105 285 table
0.5% 0.7% 0.8%
400 000
Greece 2001 10 931 206 - - table
.7%
80 000 100 000
Austria 2002 8 065 146 - table
1.0% 1.2%
High quality Medium quality Low quality Low quality with plausibility warning
Source: CLANDESTINO project – Database on irregular migration, http://irregular-migration.hwwi.net/
2004-2006: Stocks of Irregular Foreign Residents in the EU25
More
Estimates of irregular foreign residents
information
Country Population
Year
minimum central maximum
EU25 2005 461 603 958 2 800 000 - 6 000 000 table
500 000 1 000 000
Germany 2004 82 531 671
0.6%
-
1.2%
table
200 000 400 000
France 2005 62 637 596
0.3%
-
0.6%
table
United 120 000 240 000 380 000
2005 60 059 900 table
Kingdom 0.2% 0.4% 0.6%
541 000
Italy 2005 58 462 375 -
1.1%
- table
1 379 751
Spain 2005 43 038 035 - -
3.2%
table
50 000 300 000
Poland 2004 38 190 608
0.1%
-
0.8%
table
62 320 88 116 113 912
Netherlands 2005 16 305 526
0.4% 0.5% 0.7%
table
230 000 330 000
Greece 2004 11 040 650
2.1%
-
3.0%
table
Czech 100 000
2005 10 220 577 - - table
Republic 1.0%
20 000 40 000
Slovakia 2006 5 389 180
0.4%
-
0.7%
table
High quality Medium quality Low quality Low quality with plausibility warning
Source: CLANDESTINO project – Database on irregular migration, http://irregular-migration.hwwi.net/
2007-2008: Stocks of Irregular Foreign Residents in the EU27
More
Estimates of irregular foreign residents
information
Country Year Population
minimim central maximum
EU27 2007 495 090 294 - - - in preparation
Selected countries in descending order of population size
349 000
Italy 2007 59 131 287 - - table
0.6%
280 000 376 000
Spain 2007 44 474 631 - table
0.6% 0.8%
172 000 209 000
Greece 2007 11 171 740 - table
1.5% 1.9%
30 000 50 000
Hungary 2007 10 066 158 - table
0.3% 0.5%
15 000 20 000
Slovakia 2007 5 393 637 - table
0.3% 0.4%
High quality Medium quality Low quality Low quality with plausibility warning
Source: CLANDESTINO project – Database on irregular migration, http://irregular-migration.hwwi.net/
Irregular work by sectors
• Data have been obtained for twelve Member States (BE, DK, FI, FR,
EL, HU, IT, LV, NL, PT, ES, UK) on the sectors in which illegal
immigrants work:
– Construction, agriculture and horticulture, housework /
cleaning, catering and other hospitality services are
repeatedly identified as the sectors most prone to
undocumented work, in general, and that of illegal migrants, in
particular.
– This reflects in part the nature of the work that is required in
these sectors (e.g. seasonal and flexible) and in part the
variations in the presence of sectors in Member States. For
example, in some Member States the agricultural sector is more
important than in others, which may lead to a higher number of
illegal immigrants getting such work (Proposal 2007).
Irregular work by sectors
• In Finland, France, Hungary and Portugal the highest concentrations
of illegal migrants in work are found in construction. In Greece and
Spain, illegal migrants in work are predominantly found in the
housework/cleaning sector, whereas in Denmark, the employment of
illegal migrants is particularly high in agriculture. In the Netherlands,
catering and other hospitality services are a focus of recruitment of
illegal migrants (Proposal 2007).
Close relations to informal economies
• The sector with the highest incidence of informal
work is the construction sector. In Pedersen‘s
study, the sector is rivalled only in Germany by
agricultural work, including gardening. Next to
these two sectors, informal work is found mainly
in the hotel and restaurant sector and in
personal and domestic services (Renooy 2004).
Close relations to informal economies
• There are no general, universal causes for the
existence and development of an informal
economy.
• It is brought about by a complex interplay
between various variables that varies between
countries.
• Apart from economic reasons like tax burden or
rigidity on (labour) markets, trust in and the
quality of government play an important role.
Furthermore, one should not ignore the role of
culture in shaping an informal economy (Renooy
2004).
Important patterns - ways into and
out of illegality
• Various combinations of illegal and legal entry,
residence and employment may arise. At the
same time, numerous transitions between
legality and illegality are possible.
• There are indications in Italy that 75% of
irregular migrants have entered the country
legally, 15% have come illegally across land
borders and 10% across sea borders.
Duration of stay
• Duration of stay: In the case of irregular
migration both limited-term stays and circular
patterns of migration are found, as well as
people settling for an indeterminate period.
• Stricter border controls tend to lead to an
extended period of stay because re-entering or
moving to and from the country is risky.
Trends (Focus Migration 2008)
• Trend: there has been a general worldwide assumption since the
end of the 1980s that there has been a sharp increase in irregular
migration,
• Although there are certainly also countries where current estimates
indicate a declining trend (Germany…)
• At EU level the development has been strongly influenced by twelve
new states joining the EU since 2004. Firstly, this has reduced
illegal residency, since a large proportion of irregular migration in the
EU-15 countries stemmed from accession countries; secondly, it
appears that illegal residency has shifted from the old to the new EU
states.
What is behind it? – Driving forces
• A number of push and pull factors, which are by no means only economic
in nature; nevertheless, economic motives dominate.
• Decisions to migrate are based on push factors such as unemployment or
permanently low wage levels and natural disasters or ecological devastation,
• and on pull factors such as informal employment with higher wage levels,
political stability, maintenance of the rule of law and effective protection of
human rights.
• Irregular migrants frequently come from nearby countries with a significantly
lower level of income, from countries with established historical or current
ties with the receiving country, or from countries in which human rights
violations or poor economic conditions cause people to emigrate.
• Illegal migrants make their decisions despite various deterrents, such as
high costs for the services of smugglers and the risk of interception and
prosecution by border authorities (Proposal 2007).
What is behind it?
• The same motives for migrating are found among both irregular
and regular immigrants: earning and educational opportunities,
love, family connections, a desire to travel, the search for protection
from persecution, or fear of returning to a (former) area of war or
catastrophe. Of these, the greatest importance is attributed to
economic motives. Typically, young adults are overproportionally
represented among irregular migrants (Focus Migration 2008).
What is behind it?
Also, it is the result of inflexible rules and
understaffed (and thus overworked)
immigration bureaucracies). (More than six
million immigration petitions — many of them
requests for a change in immigration status —
were pending in the US in 2004).
What is behind?
– There is disagreement on whether the major
independent variable is the wage differential,
the available benefits for asylum seekers or
the activities of smugglers (Martin 2003).
What is behind?
• The arrival of illegal/irregular workers is
often the response to appeals from certain
niche areas of economic activity that are
involved in what are called ―underground
economies‖ (Pallida 2005).
Risks/Impacts
Illegal migration and migrants‘ irregular activities: accompanied by a
number of risks, which are tied to
- the migrant,
- the migrant‘s ―new‖ environment (destination country),
- the environment through which the migrant traveled (transit
country)
- the environment the migrant left
Risks/Impacts
The employers, employment agencies, and sometimes even the
migrants themselves – involved in irregular work/business - profit
from breaking the law.
versus
Those who do adhere to the law, pay the required taxes and
insurance, and act in accordance with the regulations (employers,
local citizens, and legal foreign workers) are at a disadvantage.
Risks/Impacts (immigration c.)
-ECONOMIC risks
- frequent discrimination
- lower wages,
- longer work periods,
- unstable employment,
- and the overall level of subordination that exists in relation to the
employer/employment agent.
- deformation of the labor market in destination countries (the quality
of working conditions decreases;
- non-payment of taxes and other deductions gives companies that
employ illegal workers an advantage, etc.
- a threat that certain branches will become ―unhealthily‖ dependent
on foreign workers
- danger that structural changes required for desirable economic
development will be delayed...
Risks/Impacts (immigration c.)
- risks within the SOCIAL SPHERE
- enclosed migrant enclaves might be established which might be
socially marginalized and offer no perspective for improving living
conditions and integration within the majority population.
- The existence of such communities can subsequently be linked
to anti-state activities, including terrorism.
Risks/Impacts (immigration c.)
- PSYCHOLOGICAL risks are at play
- including breaking existing social ties,
- living in a new cultural and social environment,
- stress caused by the ―illegal‖ nature of their arrival, residence, or work, fear
of being caught, and the possible subsequent penalties. … a state of
permanent uncertainty and, often, even danger.
- increasing xenophobia and rasism
Risks/Impacts (immigration c.)
- Possibly other factors that threaten the safety of
target countries:
- minor crimes, counterfeit documents, organized crime, human
smuggling, counterfeit consumer goods, weapons, drugs, nuclear
materials, etc.
- overall open tolerance of illegal migration also deforms the ethical
and moral codes of the receiving society.
Risks/Impacts (immigration c.)
However, there are some positive impacts:
- filling unappealing and low-paid jobs,
- a cheap and flexible workforce,
- the development of certain economic entities and sectors.
- Also, individual households benefit from the presence of
illegal/irregular workers (cheaper home services, construction,
reconstruction, etc.), prices of some goods and services
decrease …
Impacts (Proposal 2007)
Available information suggests that the employment of
illegally resident third-country nationals does not
necessarily crowd out locals from jobs. Instead, there are
signs that whole industries are already dependent on
these illegally resident third-country nationals, as the
kind of jobs they take would not be done by nationals at
a wage level that would still maintain the international
competitiveness of the sector concerned (e.g.
horticulture).
Impacts (Proposal 2007)
• Effects on the product/service market may be
positive in purely economic terms. Illegally
resident third country nationals can bring
substantial economic benefits to their host
countries in their capacity as workers. Their low
wages bring down the costs of goods and
services, making firms and sometimes entire
industries more competitive, and often have
important ripple (―up-― and ―down-stream‖)
economic benefits also for associated firms and
industries, in form of lower output prices, or
increased purchases.
Impacts (Proposal 2007)
• With respect to the effects on competition and
the single internal market, in countries where the
informal economy is less strong, employers of
illegal immigrants pose unfair competition to
others within certain sectors. In other countries,
the custom of making use of undeclared work in
general, and also illegal third country nationals,
is so wide-spread that all companies within the
sectors concerned have adapted to this
situation, and employ illegally themselves or
cope with unfair competition by other means.
Impacts (Proposal 2007)
• Illegal immigrants contribute positively
economically to both the host economies (by
making companies or even sectors more
competitive due to low salaries) and the
countries of origin (in terms of remittances).
However, there are significant costs that offset
these benefits, e.g. lack of payment of social
security contributions, exploitation of many
illegal migrants, and the distortion of the labour
market by downward pressure on wages and
conditions.
Impacts
• One of the most significant consequences of illegal immigration may
in fact stem from the increasing strength of smuggling and trafficking
syndicates.
Policies
• In general, European migration policy is
dominated by a restrictive agenda of repelling,
limiting and controlling immigration.
– At the beginning of 2002, the cabinet of ministers had
adopted a plan of action to control illegal
immigration and human trafficking. Above all, it
encouraged the development of a joint visa and
return policy, improved exchange of information
and the coordination of control authorities, the
setting up of a European border police, and a
tightening of sanctions.
Policies
• Differences among individual countries:
– In Germany, illegal residence is a criminal
offence in the eyes of the law; in some other
countries, such as the Netherlands, it is not.
Policies
• The more strictly all citizens are registered and
inspected, the easier and less expensive it is to control
migration.
– The spectrum ranges from the Scandinavian countries, where
everyone is accompanied from the cradle to the grave by an
identification number that is registered everywhere, through to
England, where there is no residential register and only since
2004 has there been a gradual introduction of compulsory
identity cards. At the same time, there is less control of
economic life in southern European countries than in
northern European countries, as a result, for example, of the
greater significance of agriculture and small business structures.
Policies
• The extent to which existing rights can actually be exercised varies sharply
from country to country. If schools, doctors and courts check residence and
cooperate – or are forced to cooperate – with the authorities responsible for
detecting and deporting irregular migrants, these migrants will be deterred
from exercising their rights. Germany has the most far-reaching
regulations on data forwarding and cooperation with the authorities in
charge of migration control. In the Netherlands, access to state services
for aliens without status was severely restricted in the 1990s, although
schooling, medical treatment and legal protection were expressly excluded.
• Irrespective of residence status, inhabitants of Spain can register with
the communal authorities and thereby receive access to basic medical
treatment. In Greece, Sweden and Italy, too, access to medical
treatment in acute emergencies is assured regardless of residence
status. Hospitals need only pass on information to police if requested to do
so in the course of an investigation.
Policies versus Practices
• One of the main problems - enforcing
employer sanctions!!!
Why does it fail?
• "law-and-order" measures alone are ineffective throughout the
world!!! – they do not change the fundamental reasons for
irregular migration
• Once migration becomes established, its momentum can be very
hard to stop. In part this is a result of social networks and chain
migration (Boyd, 1989; Gurak and Caces 1992, Koser 1997). In part
it is because a multi-billion dollar migration industry has evolved that
has a vested interest in migration continuing. This industry has both
a legitimate aspect – including travel agents, recruitment agents,
and lawyers, and an illegitimate aspect, most obviously including
migrant smugglers and human traffickers (Salt and Stein 1998).
…
…
• Fourth, people fleeing circumstances they consider intolerable will
enter the illegal migration stream and test various receiving states'
defenses repeatedly.
Why does it fail?
• a number of challenges that EU Member States face in enforcing their
policies in relation to undeclared work. These include:
– 1) Lack of coordination and cooperation between the actors responsible for
combating illegal work at the local level and between the local, regional and
national levels;
– 2) Absence of a structural and/or legislative framework that governs such
coordination and cooperation;
– 3) Insufficient human resources allocated to the bodies or units that are expected
to deter, detect and penalise undeclared work;
– 4) Inadequate financial resources at the disposal of the competent bodies or
units to undertake monitoring and act upon violations observed;
– 5) Obstacles to field operations (e.g. legislation that allows employers to deny
access to inspectors if they regard conditions on the site as unsafe);
– 6) Lack of information to undertake effective controls (e.g. few risk analyses,
limited access to information from tax authorities and banks on companies under
suspicion, employees reluctant to testify against those who exploit them);
– 7) Lack of data to assess the outcome of inspections; and,
– 8) Insufficient international cooperation (Proposal 2007).
Number of regularisations
(in thousands)
1981-1988 1990-1993 1996-1998 2000-2005 TOTAL
France 121.1 77.8 198.9
Greece 371 351 722
Italy 118.7 217.7 461.6 634.7 1 432.7
Portugal 39.2 21.8 182.2 243.2
Spain 43.8 110.1 21.3 947.2 1 122.4
TOTAL 283.6 367 953.5 2 115.1 3 719.2
United States 405 400 805
Source: OECD/Sopemi 2006 according to Diez Guardia, Pichelmann 2006
Regularisation
• The study entitled ‗REGINE – Regularisations in Europe.
Study on practices in the area of regularisation of
illegally staying third-country nationals in the Member
States of the EU‘ (2009) has been commissioned by the
European Commission and has been conducted by a
team of researchers at the International Centre for
Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), with additional
contributions from external experts
• See
http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/doc_centre/immigration
/studies/doc_immigration_studies_en.htm
and http://research.icmpd.org/1184.html
Regularisation
• The EU Member States currently use, or
have used, some sort of regularisation
measure in the recent past, although the
extent to which they use regularisation as
a policy tool varies greatly.
Regularisation
• In the study, regularisation is defined as
any state procedure by which illegally
staying third country nationals are
awarded a legal status …, although actual
practices are more complex …
Regularisation
• 1) There are various regularisation procedures that allow illegally staying
migrants to acquire a legal status from within their current country of
residence.
• 2) regularisation measures sometimes target various categories of
technically legally staying migrants on transitional or restricted permits.
• 3) regularisations sometimes award statuses short of a fully fledged legal
status, notably in cases in which a removal order is formally temporarily
suspended (‗toleration‘).
Regularisation
• Between 1996 and 2008 available data show that in total
some 3.5 million persons were regularised in the EU27
in the period under review, with the actual number likely
to be substantially higher (5.5-6.0 mil).
(43 regularisation programmes have been implemented
in 17 EU Member States) (see REGINE 2009)
Regularisation
• European Union Member States regularise irregular migrants
through two basic types of regularisation measures – regularisation
programmes and regularisation mechanisms.
Mechanisms are part of the regular migratory policy framework and
are thus permanent measures;
Programmes - specific measures - run for a limited period of time
and typically target specific categories of non-nationals in an
irregular situation, typically involve larger numbers of persons and
frequently target employed irregular migrants, often in an attempt to
clamp down on irregular employment more generally.
Criteria for regularisations: transparent and clearly defined.
Among the most frequent criteria used are: residence in the country
before a certain date, length of residence, proof of employment.
Regularisation
• Criteria and procedures in regularisation mechanisms,
by contrast, are often less well defined, leaving
substantial room for administrative discretion.
– typically these are small-scale measures, regularising only
relatively small numbers of irregular migrants and are focused
largely on humanitarian cases.
Regularisation
• Italy (under 1.5m applications);
• Spain with 1.3m, and Greece just under 1.2m - mostly broadly
designed regularisation programmes targeting undocumented
migrant workers
- these three countries account for 84% of known applications in
regularisation programmes.
• In Northern European countries typically have targeted humanitarian
cases, including long-term and rejected asylum seekers, non-
deportable aliens, family members, amongst others.
Regularisation
• In contrast to programmes, many statistics on regularisation
mechanisms are either not collected or not available.
… regularisations through mechanisms are usually administered
through the regular framework for issuing residence permits.
Regularisation
• In EU Member States - regularisation follows two distinct logics:
– 1) a humanitarian and rights based logic
• regularisation is typically based on a broad set of
humanitarian criteria and generally is informed by human
rights considerations
– 2) a non-humanitarian, regulatory and labour market oriented logic
• regularisation is a means to achieve wider objectives, and in
particular to address the nexus of irregular migration and the
informal economy…aim at combating undeclared work, ensuring
compliance with tax, social security obligations and at enforcing
social rights and labour standards, and thus, fighting social
exclusion, vulnerability and other ills associated with undeclared
work. In addition, there is an aim to promote the integration of
regularised migrants
Regularisation
• The study suggests that the overall impact of regularisation
programmes is positive, with small but permanent reductions in
irregular residence/employment.
• The study finds only limited evidence for a pull effect of
regularisations, although there is evidence that regularisation
measures have a negative impact on return programmes.
• Regularisation mechanisms generally seem to provide a useful and
flexible tool to address humanitarian cases, although
nontransparency of rules and administrative practice stand out as
major problems.
Regularisation- policy recommendations
• The study recommends that policy responses should adopt a long
term perspective and put efforts into reforming recruitment and
admission policies.
• However, in the short term and in particular in countries with large
irregular migrant stocks, regularisation is often a necessary and
unavoidable option to address the presence of irregular
migrants,
• Fourthly, the study finds that the asylum system is closely linked
to the “creation” of irregular migrants, particularly in Northern
European countries, reflecting considerable differences in access
to protection across European states.
– a need to elaborate clear rules regarding the treatment of
the small but significant number of persons who cannot be
removed over an extended period of time, many of whom are
rejected asylum seekers not qualifying for Convention status or
subsidiary protection.
Regularisation- policy recommendations
• The study identifies family-related reasons as increasingly
important grounds on which irregular migrants are regularised,
suggesting deficiencies of the existing legal regulations for family
reunification and a need for more flexible approaches in this regard.
Regularisation
• Besides the national level - regularisation clearly falls within the
scope of the competence of the EU in the area of migration as
defined by Article 63 (3) of the Amsterdam Treaty)
• There is no consensus within the EU-27 concerning the need
for regularisation policies.
Given the diversity of positions over the need for regularisation,
governments on the whole, are not in favour of regulation at the
European level. However, there is considerable support among
governments for increased exchange of information, including
the exchange of good practices.
- In general, trade unions are cautious supporters of regularisation
policies.
- NGOs are the most active actors concerning mobilisation and
campaigns for regularisation programmes—most notably in Belgium,
France, Portugal, Spain, the UK, Ireland and Germany.
Regularisations (Laubenthal 2007)
• The recent pro-regularisation movements
in France, Spain and Switzerland
emerged in the context of three common
preconditions that encouraged their
emergence.
– 1) The first common precondition was the
factual acceptance of illegal migration as
a mode of immigration. …
Regularisations (Laubenthal 2007)
2) The second precondition was that
before the protests, changes in the
national civil societies had taken place
leading to the presence of new actors
who were available to support the illegal
migrants‘ cause.
Regularisations (Laubenthal 2007)
• In France, under the leitmotif of social exclusion, a network of new actors
emerged which put forward the demand for regularisation and linked it to
claims for social rights for other socially vulnerable groups.
• Spain, too, the core supporters of the protests were newly founded
actors. These were antiracism and human rights groups that represented
a new segment of civil society that criticized Spanish immigration policy
from a human rights and/or anti-globalisation perspective and endorsed
an unconventional action repertoire.
• In Switzerland, established actors in the field of immigration supported
the demand for regularisation. Swiss trade unions were well-organized
and numerically strong allies which, because of their historical
development, were strongly disposed to act as representatives of
migrants‘ interests.
Regularisations (Laubenthal 2007)
3) The third precondition for the emergence of
the pro-regularisation movements was the
existence of historical linkages between the
countries of origin and the countries in
which the protests took place. These
linkages were rooted either in the countries‘
colonial past or in their recent migration
history, and could be used by the movements
to legitimate their demands.
Recommendations (Proposal 2007)
Policy options at the EU level
A multi-criteria analysis has been used to assess and compare impacts,
– The preferred option
• On the basis of the comparison of the options and their
impacts on meeting policy objectives and contributing
to and respecting fundamental rights, and in the light of
Member States‘ and stakeholder views, and
practicality and costs, the preferred option is a
combination of:
• Option 4: Harmonised employer sanctions and
preventive measures for employers to relevant
documentation (residence and work permit) and to
notify a competent national body; and,
• Option 6: Identification and exchange of good practice
between Member States.
Recommendations (Proposal 2007)
• It is proposed that this preferred policy option would be accompanied by
the following supporting measures at Member State level:
• Each Member State would
– identify the competent authorities
– develop/refine the procedures to be followed by the employers
– data protection
– compliance with the requirement to submit relevant
documentation
– establishment of protective measures for illegally employed
third-country nationals in case of sanctions for the employer,
– awareness raising campaigns
Recommendations (Koser 2005)
A typology of state policy instruments to address irregular migration
Pre-frontier measures
• Visa requirements
• Pre-boarding documentation checks in countries of origin and transit
• Information campaigns
• Carrier sanctions
• Liaison officers
• Interdiction and interception
• Regional processing
• Punitive measures against human smugglers
Measures relating to border management
• Strengthened physical borders (fences, electronic surveillance)
• Strengthened border controls and inspections
• Documentation with enhanced security features
• Biometric data
• Training border guards
Recommendations (Koser 2005)
Post-entry measures
• Detention
• Workplace inspections
• Internal ID inspections
• Accelerated procedures
• Employer sanctions
• Dispersal and restrictions on mobility
• Restrictions on the right to work, access to housing, legal advice and social
welfare benefits
Policy recommendations
Policy should usually incorporate the following key components
(Koser 2005)
– Control measures and law enforcement
– Regular and organised migration programmes
– Return programmes
– Strategies for combating migrant smuggling and human trafficking
– Special programmes for ensuring the protection of refugees within
broader migration movements
Policy should be guided by the following underlying principles:
– A long-term approach that takes account of the causes and effects of
irregular migration
– A balanced approach that reconciles state sovereignty with the rights of
individuals
– A unified approach that incorporates dialogue between different parts of
government; between government, NGOs and civil society, and
between governments in different countries
Policy recommendations – summary
• Governments should systemically and regularly review internal controls in
order to reduce opportunities for irregular immigrants to gain footholds
• It is necessary to focus upon real and would-be employers in order to
substantially limit the ―comparative advantages‖ of irregular/illegal
employment.
• Higher effectiveness of sanctions and preventive measures
• Law enforcement must be improved (low number of prosecutions …)
• The procedures that employers are to follow must be short and flexible
enabling rapid responses to changes in the (labour) market.
• To standardize as much as possible fines for employers of illegally staying
third-country nationals
• Channeling much more illegal immigration into regulated pathways -
governments should widen and deepen legal immigration channels of
various forms
• Effective migration management requires better coordination and
cooperation among and within governmental, intergovernmental and non-
governmental agencies dealing with migrants.
Policy recommendations - summary
• More intensive international cooperation, more intensive regional
dialogue and partnerships
• More robust, long-term and better targeted economic assistance for
countries or regions (education, development etc.) that are the
source of illegal migrants
• Better research and data collection
• Services for the victims of trafficking
• Identification and exchange of good practices on the implementation
of employer sanctions between Member States (like systems of
employer inspections; the training of employers; methods for
regularising/removing third country nationals identified as working
illegally; the application of sanctions; the detection of systematic and
large scale illegal employment; the links between illegal employment
of third country nationals without the right to work and the wider
informal economy.
