The Regularisation of Unauthorized Migrants: Literature Survey and Country Case Studies

Abstract: Regularisation programmes have emerged in the past 25 years or so as one of the mechanisms States use to account for and manage the undocumented immigrant population in their countries, and are usually implemented in concert with the internal and external strengthening of migration controls. This paper attempts to answer the questions arising from such programmes through a survey of nine regularisation programmes in the United States and the European Union. The first part of the survey offers a broad introduction to, overview and analysis of regularisation programmes through a review of available literature on the topic. The second part of the survey is an in-depth analysis of regularisation programmes in nine countries, and provides for each country a brief overview of their current migration policy, legal channels of immigration into the country, and the undocumented population in relation to the country's demographic profile. In order to provide a complete picture of each programme, throughout the survey an attempt has been made to draw on government, non-governmental and academic sources.