Work Package 6 contribution to D9.5 & D9.4.
At considerable economic and human cost, a large number of irregular migrants currently live in a ‘limbo’ situation in Europe. According to the EU official statistics, less than 30 percent of all non-European nationals who receive an expulsion order return voluntarily or are deported. Those who do not return are given limited opportunities to regularise their stay, as states fear that regularisation will attract irregular migration and will not besupported by the electorate.
Download the full paper here.
This working paper aimed to create an inventory of existing alternatives to return policies in 11 European countries hosting large numbers of irregular migrants. We looked closely at policies that have been implemented, both formally and informally, where, for various normative and practical reasons, no return takes place, and people live in irregular status, in some cases for very long periods. The 20-year route to regularisation introduced in the UK for those with 20 years of documented residence is one of the most emblematic examples of this long-standing limbo situation.
Authors: Gül Ince-Beqo, University of Milan (UMIL), Maurizio Ambrosini, University of Milan (UMIL), Ana Maria Torres Chedraui, Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), Carmine Conte, Migration Policy Group (MPG), & Alexis McLean, International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).