"Here to Work": Undocumented Immigration in the United States and Europe

Abstract

Whether the story is of Chinese immigrants discovered in a Seattle port container or suffocated to death in the back of a truck passing through the British Channel port of Dover, whether it concerns raids on employers in the south-western United States or in German construction firms, undocumented immigration 1 and employment have captured the attention of the popular media and social scientists alike. However, rather than focusing on a series of sensationalist stories of undocumented immigrants and their unscrupulous employers or obsessing over the number of undocumented migrants in various countries, this paper sketches out some similarities and differences in the political economy of undocumented immigration and informal employment in the United States and the European Union. Following the work of Guiraudon and Lahav, I argue that this dynamic political economy can be explored through an upward, downward, and outward re-scaling of policymaking. 2 I conclude that there are remarkable similarities but also some important divergences between the United States and the European Union in terms of the social processes and scales that are involved in decision-making.