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Focusing on the dynamics of irregular immigration in Southern EU Member States, this book analyses how the phenomenon is managed at national and local levels in different legal and political systems. In doing so, it answers vital policy questions regarding the continued existence of irregular migration, pathways to legality, and relations between unauthorized migrants and receiving societies.
The author argues that while the economic crisis and migrant flows coming from the South and East of the Mediterranean Sea have called this regime into question, it is the needs of labour markets in Southern Europe and compliance with European Union rules that has had a more dominant effect. The particular manner in which labour markets, political actors, social institutions, and migrants' networks intersect are shown to be distinctive features of the migration regime in this region.
Describing bordering and debordering practices,from the island of Lampedusa to local communities in distant regions, this book brings fresh insights to urgent areas of debate within the field. It analyses why many irregular immigrants are socially accepted, such as women who perform domestic and care activities, whereas others are rejected and marginalized, as is often the case for asylum seekers, despite having permission to reside.
Drawing together twenty years of research and addressing the current crisis, it will appeal to policy-makers, students and scholars of migration.
List of contents
Chapter 1. Introduction: Illegal immigration as a selective and dynamic process in different settings.- Chapter 2. Dealing with irregular immigration in Southern and Western Europe.- Chapter 3. The European Union and asylum seekers: between human rights and national sovereignty.- Chapter 4. Irregular immigrants as social actors.- Chapter 5. NGOs and civil societies.- Chapter 6. Civil servants and street level bureaucracies.
About the author
Maurizio Ambrosini is Professor of Sociology of Migration at the University of Milan and chargé d’enseignement at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France. In addition to writing several books in Italian and articles in various languages, he is the author of Irregular Immigration and Invisible Welfare (Palgrave 2013) and edited Europe: No Migrants land? (ISPI, 2016).
Summary
Provides a timely contribution to our understanding of the current refugee crisis in Europe
Sheds light on the fine line that separates legal and irregular migration
Offers significant policy insights for a Europe that lacks a common approach to immigration
Provides an illuminating case study for comparative research on migration regimes in the global North
