Legal and illegal immigration into Europe: experiences and challenges

Abstract

The end of the Cold War marked a major break for migration policies in Europe. Defensive projections and visions of migration came to the fore in a European Union whose integration and openness toward the internal border-free single market went hand-in-hand with joint isolation of a ‘Fortress Europe’ vis-à-vis undesirable and, especially illegal, in-migration from outside its borders. As long as a negative coalition against unwelcome immigration prevails instead of a European migration concept, Europe itself contributes to the illegalization of immigration and to the persistence of the enemy image of ‘illegal immigration’. Against a background of widespread and confused fears of migration pressure from outside Europe, three issues have to be promoted by clear political direction with long-term perspectives: (1) a further normalization in dealing with migration and integration; (2) the acceptance and understanding of the feasibility of these central issues of social life in an immigration country, but also (3) the pragmatic acceptance of the limits of migration control in view of the often underestimated autonomous dynamics of migration and integration processes. This combines perspectives of researching migration and integration as well as the shaping of policies.

Illegal Residence and Public Safety in the Netherlands

“…3 Substantial numbers of illegal migrants are also present in transit countries such as Turkey, Russia, Mexico and Malaysia (Schoenhardt 2001;Bade 2004).…”

Attitudinal Predictors of Potential Illegal Cross-Border Migration

“…22.5 percent were male (M age = 23.3, SD = 4.8). The statements were placed in random order in a selfcompletion questionnaire, each with five response options "strongly agree" (5), "agree" (4), "undecided" (3), "disagree" (2), "strongly disagree" (1). The data was collected in classrooms and lecture halls.…”

“…Despite increasingly stringent immigration controls, a significant component of migration consists of people who travel to and stay in foreign countries illegally, see e.g. Bade [1]. According to the report of the Global Commission of International Migrations undocumented migration is one of the most controversial areas of policy and practice facing virtually all countries [2].…”

The Fight Against Illegal Migration

“…In this part of the economy, one can find the remains of industrial activities (e.g., the garment industry with its sewing shops), but there is also informal paid labor in all kinds of enterprises in the business and personal service industries such as cleaning, security, catering, care for children and the elderly, and home improvement. Furthermore, a sizeable ethnic economy has evolved in many large cities in which informal labor by irregular compatriots is a rather common phenomenon (Bade, 2003;Ehrenreich & Hochschild, 2004;Sassen, 1991;Waldinger, 2001).…”

“…Second, governments organized crackdowns in certain industries. Implementation became focused on certain sectors of the economy in which illegal aliens traditionally find employment, such as construction, agriculture, horticulture, the garment industry, and the restaurant and catering industries (Bade, 2003). In Berlin, the largest European building site during the 1990s, implementation zoomed in on the construction sector.…”