Irregular Migration. The Dilemmas of Transnational Mobility

Abstract

This work analyses the fundamental tensions at the core of present attempts to manage the movement of population in the modern world. Contemporary events around the globe have prompted a reappraisal of the emerging consensus on migration control. Business demands free movement while nations fear unregulated population flows. The replacement of immigration control with migration management is the aim of First world governments as irregular migration challenges states' attempts to find a balance between recruitment of labour, humanitarian protection and national security. This work provides a theoretical framework for the analysis of mobility and border crossings in an age of globalization. It draws upon the authors' pioneering research on people working in the UK without proper immigration status, the organizations that support immigrants and the responses of control agencies and public services. Losers in the global economy, who vote with their feet as economic migrants, are making a claim to justice as well as trying to improve their standards of living. The book concludes with an evaluation of the justification for border controls, and of the prospects for migration regimes under conditions of growing inequality.