Undocumented Immigrants Research Articles

Voices of Resistance: Gender, Citizenship, and Rights in Miyah Poetry

The term Miyah has a specific meaning in Assam. Unlike in other parts of India, where it is used to address a gentleman in an honourable way, in Assam it is a pejorative term that refers to the community of Assamese Muslims of Bengali origin. This community is now reclaiming this identity through various forms of creative expression including poetry. The perpetual “other” in Assamese nationalist assertions, the Miyah until recently was accorded very little agency in the popular imagination. Miyah poetry emerged as a powerful mode of resisting injustice and suffering during the preparation of the National Register of Citizens in Assam (NRC), a complex and tedious bureaucratic exercise that could render a huge section of the population “undocumented migrants.” This is a genre of poetry that is resisting two kinds of power relationships – the hegemony of the Assamese language and the class hierarchy associated with the term Miyah in everyday usage. I argue that there is an explicit gender dimension of the word Miyah which has remained largely unexplored. The question of citizenship has different implications for men and women within the Miyah community, and it merits our attention to explore this difference through a feminist reading of Miyah poetry.

Media Framing of Rohingya Muslims: A Comparative Analysis of Western, Middle Eastern, and Southeast Asian Media

The Rohingya, a Muslim minority group in Myanmar, have long suffered systematic discrimination, persecution, and violence that has culminated since 2017. The Myanmar government refuses to grant citizenship to the Rohingya, considering them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though they have lived in Myanmar for generations. To highlight the complex relationship between media, geopolitics, and public opinion formation, this research seeks to analyze potential biases and contrasting narratives between Western, Middle Eastern, and Southeast Asian media opinions on Rohingya Muslims. To examine the portrayal of the Rohingya as “refugees”, “victims of violence”, and “rejects”, this study used NVIVO 14 by analyzing 120 news stories, consisting of 40 stories from Western media (CNN and BBC News), 40 from Middle Eastern media (Al Jazeera and Alarabiya News), and 40 from Southeast Asian media (Kompas and The Star). The results showed that Western media tended to frame the Rohingya as victims of violence, Middle Eastern media highlighted the plight of refugees in some countries, while Southeast Asian media highlighted the theme of resistance to their arrival. The analysis also found that the media tended to use neutral sentiments, although bias was detected in certain narrative and framing choices. This research contributes to discourse studies by emphasising the importance of understanding framing biases in shaping public opinion and suggests further analysis that includes levels of semiotics and critical discourse to reveal the depth of media narratives on the Rohingya.

Work-Related Injury and Healthcare Access Among Day Laborers. Struggling at the Esquina.

California has a significant day laborer population, with about one-third of the total U.S. day laborer population working in the state. Day laborers, characterized by a lack of labor protections, low socioeconomic status, English illiteracy, and irregular immigration status, face numerous challenges regarding work-related injuries and limited access to healthcare. Eighty percent of day laborers are undocumented, and most do not have access to healthcare. Despite recent research growth, little is known about their experiences with work-related injuries and healthcare treatment. Our findings reveal that only 8.4% of day laborers have health insurance, and around 26% have experienced work-related injuries. This paper highlights the challenges faced by this population and emphasizes the importance of understanding their experiences to improve occupational health and safety policy. Additionally, we acknowledge the critical role of worker centers and national efforts in addressing health and safety issues among day laborers.

A novel model of age estimation in mixed dentition population in Western India – A retrospective study

Objectives: Age estimation is an integral part of legal investigations for forensic purposes. When the chronological age of the individual is not documented or he/she is under the conflict of the law, age estimation comes into play. The need for age estimation may arise in various legal incidences involving children, and juveniles, for civil aspects such as adoption, child labor, or other criminal proceedings such as rape, kidnapping, and illegal immigration. An accurate and dependable method, that can estimate age with high probability, can aid in narrowing down the list of possible victims or even play a decisive role in such cases. The reliability of the method and the probability of correct age estimation play a decisive role in the court of law. Bedek et al’s model (2019) was recently developed and tested in Croatian and South Indian populations with satisfactory results. As there is no evidence of study in the Western Indian population, looking into the accessibility of the population group, the present study aims to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Bedek method in the Western Indian population. Materials and Methods: Approval was sought from the Institutional Ethical Committee. Five hundred and twenty-five orthopantomographs (OPG) of patients aged 5–15 were obtained. A double-blinded study was done, where the radiographs were analyzed using ImageJ software, independently by two investigators. The data were tabulated and subjected to statistical analysis for accuracy of age estimation and intra- as well as inter-observer reliability. Results: There was an underestimation by a range of −1.3038 to −0.74536. There was underestimation in all the models of Bedek with P < 0.005, for all the teeth models except, the three- and two-teeth model (P > 0.005). Conclusion: In our study, we found that the accuracy of age estimation increases significantly with the number of teeth used. Seven four-teeth models were the most suitable for age estimation on OPG. All models except the three-teeth model and two-teeth model were found to be more accurate.

The intersection of immigration-related racism and xenophobia shaping undocumented immigrants’ experiences with liminality.

The intersection of immigration-related racism and xenophobia shaping undocumented immigrants’ experiences with liminality.

Being invited. Ethics in participant-researcher relationships

This article examines the act of ‘being invited’ by research participants to explore asymmetrical power relations and research ethics in ethnographies along migration trajectories. It uses the lens of money in research relationships to explore agency and the reversal of power through hospitality and gift-giving. I examine invitations in the research process as (a) a way for researchers to gain access to their research subject and (b) a way for interlocutors to renegotiate and invert the research process. Drawing on a 9-month multi-sited ethnography along the trajectory of undocumented migration from Afghanistan to Germany, I relied on continuous invitations to revisit interlocutors. First, I argue that invitations are the necessary entry point into research sites, but are often excluded from considerations of research ethics. Second, an examination of ‘being invited’ as a concept shows that interlocutors shape the research process and exercise agency through a moral economy of research relations.

EU‒Africa Relations: Migration Diplomacy Approach

The article offers a fresh insight into the relations between the European Union and Africa from “migration diplomacy” perspective which is being introduced in migration and international relations research in Russia. The author notes the explanatory and predictive potential of the “migration diplomacy” concept for considering the complex relations between states within different migration systems. The analysis of interactions and cooperation of the EU, as a receiving side, with the states of origin and transit of international migrants in Africa allowed to highlight the specifics of the EU approach. The latter consists in using various diplomatic means and formats to address the problem of illegal immigration and reducing the number of asylum seekers in the EU. The increasing dependence of the European Union on cooperation with third countries results in the use of migration as a tool of political pressure by partner states. Intracontinental migration processes are at the centre of the migration diplomacy of the African continent, including those related to freedom of movement. Despite the differences in the approaches of the parties, the potential for cooperation lies in the development of channels for legal labour migration.

Beyond borders: Navigating non-traditional security challenges in Central Asia

Since the end of the Cold War, non-traditional security threats have been a significant concern for five post-communist Central Asian powers, namely Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan. Security strategy for Central Asian powers remains predominantly entrenched in hard or military-oriented security. However, the contemporary challenges to regional security in Central Asia are related to human security stemming from the growth of transnational criminal groups, illegal immigration, water security, climate change, and others. Determining how non-traditional threats have impacted regional stability in Central Asia is, thus, the primary objective of this research. The descriptive method, a prominent social research method, sheds light on the recurrent pattern and meaning of complex security issues affecting CARs. The data is collected both from primary and secondary sources such as government reports, e-resources, news articles, journal articles, and others, to facilitate a deeper understanding of the different dimensions of security issues. By juxtaposing both data, this article highlights the interlink between traditional and non-traditional security challenges. The findings of this study suggest that Central Asian republics are required to become more resilient to shocks from the inside and avoid state failure. Sustainable development strategies must be embraced by governments with support from major powers such as Russia, China, and the US to lessen the political unrest, violence, and conflicts.

Cultivating Ethical and Politically Rooted Research Practices With Undocumented Migrants

One of the authors and two co‐editors of the anthology <em>We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States</em> reflect on the meanings, emotions, and expectations of the project as they are associated with the factor of time. While academic timelines can feel urgent and pressing, the authors learned through their collective work that when guided by a politics of care, the slowing of time can be a foundation for an ethical and political imperative in research with undocumented immigrants and scholars. Researchers with a deep commitment to the community they write about can rely on time to digest information slowly and to handle complex emotions as they theorize difficult experiences that may parallel their own lives. Time can also be prioritized to grant study participants multiple rounds of feedback for each written piece, until they feel comfortable with how their experiences are represented. We also reflect on the need for researchers to take their time in developing an ethical data collection process. For example, conducting interviews with care with undocumented migrants requires researchers to take the time to get to know people, give them time to reflect during the conversation, and consider the timing of questions to ensure that each interview minimizes harm to interviewees. In these ways, we highlight the importance of extending time as an ethical imperative of doing research with undocumented migrants.

US public opinion about interior border checkpoints and health care access for undocumented immigrants.

Legal status is an important social determinant of health. Immigration enforcement policies may be an important contributor to health disparities in the form of interior border checkpoints (IBCs). These checkpoints may prevent immigrants and their families from seeking needed medical care. Currently, we do not know how these barriers are perceived by the public. We administered a survey of 6,178 respondents from 13 November to 19 November of 2023 that contained a survey experiment to assess public attitudes on the issue. Respondents were generally not supportive of detaining individuals at IBCs or medical facilities for emergencies regardless of characteristics of the care-seeking individual. A majority was supportive of detention when medical treatment was complete. Respondents were generally more sympathetic towards children and pregnant women. Partisanship and sympathy expressed towards immigrants influenced attitudes towards detention. Findings based on race and ethnicity showed inconsistencies. A majority of Americans did not believe that IBCs should impede undocumented immigrants from accessing medical care, especially in emergency situations and for children and pregnant women. Our findings indicate that there is broad public support for expanding existing policies to allow for undocumented individuals to pass through IBCs to access medical care.

When Migrants Mobilize against Labor Exploitation: Evidence from the Italian Farmlands

Migrant labor exploitation is widespread in developed countries, which host growing populations of undocumented migrants. While denouncing by migrants is essential to prosecute exploitative employers, an undocumented community actively hiding from the state is unlikely to whistleblow. I consider an intervention providing migrant farmworkers in Italy information and incentives to report on their racketeers. I leverage the staggered rollout of the intervention to study its effects in a difference-in-differences framework. The intervention empowered migrants to whistleblow, increased the prosecution of criminal organizations responsible for racketeering migrants, and raised awareness among natives, who became more favorable toward immigration and parties supporting it. These findings highlight the conditions under which undocumented migrants can take political action for their socioeconomic advancement. Unlike other integration policies which have been shown to backlash, highlighting migrants’ vulnerability to exploitation might foster solidarity and more liberal immigration attitudes among natives.

THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF NON-TRADITIONAL MARITIME SECURITY

The Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has become the primary energy and economic route for the world. The irregular, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing industry, illegal immigration, smuggling of weapons and drugs, maritime terrorism, piracy, and climate change are just a few of the non-traditional maritime security issues that the IOR littorals are worried about. This study looks at the patterns and causes of the aforementioned problems, as well as how these threats affect the IOR littorals. Cooperation in the marine realm is primarily based on addressing non-traditional maritime hazards. The South China Sea and Indian Ocean Region's differing levels of instability and security-related problems offer India and ASEAN has a wide range of challenges and collaborative strategies to collaborate. This essay examines a range of factors that potentially present India and ASEAN with opportunities to collaborate throughout the Indo-Pacific region to address the many common non-traditional hazards to the sea. Keywords: Theoretical framework and Conceptual framework, Non-traditional maritime security

Undocumented immigrants and the growth of Hispanic entrepreneurship

AbstractOver the last two decades, there has been a significant surge in the self-employment rate among Hispanics, especially among Hispanic immigrants. However, the reasons behind this increase remain underexplored. This paper addresses this gap by examining the role of undocumented immigrants, a substantial part of the Hispanic immigrant population, by discerning immigrants’ legal status in the Current Population Survey–Annual Social and Economic data (1994–2018). The findings reveal that the nearly doubled self-employment rate among Hispanic immigrants is primarily driven by undocumented individuals, especially those of Mexican origin. A key factor is the post-9/11 tightening of immigration enforcement, which worsened job prospects for undocumented immigrants, pushing many into self-employment. This event triggered a distinct pattern in Hispanic self-employment, setting it apart from other demographic groups. Other factors, such as business cycles, state-level immigration policies, the gig economy, and the growth of the Hispanic community, also contribute but play a lesser role.

Citizenship, legal status, and misdemeanor justice

AbstractAlthough minor forms of criminal justice contact are increasingly used to identify immigration violators, little research has been conducted at the intersection of immigration and misdemeanor justice. As a result, citizenship remains undertheorized in punishment research and fundamental questions remain unanswered. In this article, we introduce the “crimmigrant” punishment framework to conceptualize the unique case processing consequences for non–U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants. We then draw on rich case data from all misdemeanor arrests in Texas and California between 2006 and 2018 to establish four notable findings. (1) Misdemeanors are common and consequential. We observe more than 1.4 million misdemeanor arrests involving non–U.S. citizens, the overwhelming majority of which resulted in criminal charges and formal punishments. (2) The offenses that funnel noncitizens into the misdemeanor system are similar to those of U.S. citizens; however, we do observe an appreciable number of arrests linked to noncitizens’ legal status (e.g., giving false information). (3) Once in the misdemeanor system, noncitizens, and especially undocumented immigrants, are significantly more likely to be convicted and incarcerated compared with similarly situated U.S. citizens. (4) These disparities are more severe in Texas than in California.

U Visa Certification Patterns and Coverage: A Case Study in the Southeastern United States

Although research has traditionally examined the role of law enforcement agencies in policing immigrants as potential perpetrators of crime and their relationship to federal immigration law enforcement, researchers have focused less on how police respond to immigrant victims of crime and help them secure legal benefits. This paper examines a local case of the U visa program, a federal program administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Eligible immigrants, including unauthorized immigrants, who are crime victims can apply for a U visa if they report and assist in the investigation of a qualifying crime. A key feature of the U visa program is the mandatory involvement of a certifying agency, most commonly law enforcement. Using U visa certification data across 5 years from a local police department and background conversations regarding the certification process, we provide one of the first examinations of U visa certification at the agency level. We also use certification request data, local crime rates, and estimates of the unauthorized immigrant population at the Census tract level to produce an exploratory U visa coverage rate.

Litigation as a Governance Strategy: Courts, Bureaucracies and the Welfare Rights of Irregular Migrants

ABSTRACTOver the last few years, the welfare rights of illegalized migrants living in Belgium have become increasingly restricted. Without a legal residence status, such rights are limited to (conditional) access to public healthcare. Welfare courts have, however, sometimes gone against the grain and granted social assistance benefits to irregularized applicants, based on fundamental rights principles. Conflicting jurisprudential trends have emerged and are still debating the ambiguous, and multiple meanings of ‘human dignity’ especially for those with a precarious immigration status. This article delves into the role of courts in the implementation of migrants' welfare rights. Based on ethnographic fieldwork within welfare courts, in public administrations and amongst migrants, it shows how litigation has become part of the daily governance of social protection. This allows certain categories of migrants to gain access to financial assistance, yet creates lengthy, complex procedures and leading to great uncertainty for claimants.

Evaluating the Use of Humanitarian Parole as a Border Management Strategy in the United States

The number of arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border has increased dramatically over the past five years. To accommodate this increased flow, the Biden administration introduced a new program that allows migrants from ‘non-deportable’ countries - Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV) - the opportunity to apply for parole while still in their home countries and arrive for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) appointments at a given port of entry, alleviating the numbers of unsolicited arrivals along the border. In this article, we analyze CBP data to assess the program's effectiveness in reducing irregular migration along the southern U.S. border. Our results show that the CHNV parole program has demonstrated varying levels of success in reducing border encounters, with pronounced, long-term effects for Cuban and Nicaraguan nationals and only temporary for Venezuelan and Haitian individuals. We explore the potential causes for these different outcomes and recommend program adjustments to facilitate the growing number of individuals pursuing lawful entry into the United States.

From Policy to Reality: Examining the Rippling Effects of Return Migration Governance in Nigeria

In the global effort to address irregular migration, leaders from Africa and Europe collaborate to implement policies aimed at enabling the safe return and reintegration of migrants. Nigeria played a vital role as a regional partner in this effort, as highlighted in the 2015 Valletta Summit. However, challenges faced by returnees, including violence, job scarcity, and limited resources, demonstrate that these policies are not without difficulties. This article examines the expanding return migration industry in Nigeria, its connections to EU border policies, and its socioeconomic and political impacts. Through empirical analysis, the study explores the roles of different actors in facilitating return and reintegration processes, including governmental bodies, intermediaries such as the International Organization for Migration and the lesser known German Society for International Cooperation, and local civil society organizations. The analysis reveals the rippling effects of return and reintegration policies, including the establishment of new industries and services, changes in governance and organizational frameworks, and notable economic and spatial transformations. Key issues examined include the influence of corruption, the role of international organizations like the International Organization for Migration, and the experiences of returnees and local civil society groups. The article concludes by calling for the decolonization of migration governance, enhanced transparency and accountability, and the centering of returnees’ voices and perspectives to develop more equitable and responsive interventions.

Citizenship and Migration

This paper investigates the intricate relationship between citizenship and migration, emphasizing their significance for individual rights and societal progress. The primary objective is to analyze how migration influences citizenship status and vice versa, while exploring the legal and social implications within the European Union context. The methodology involves a thorough review of migration law developments and citizenship frameworks, highlighting state sovereignty in defining these areas. Key findings indicate that migration is a global challenge that necessitates a collaborative response among states, international organizations, and civil society. The evolution of citizenship within the EU, which now incorporates concepts such as European and multiple citizenship, enables individuals to navigate their rights and obligations across various jurisdictions. The study reveals that effective migration management requires harmonized legal standards and the protection of migrants’ rights, including asylum and residency. In conclusion, while the EU has made strides in creating a unified approach to citizenship and migration, significant challenges remain. The paper advocates for a reform of the EU migration system to enhance procedural efficiency and ensure equitable burden-sharing among member states. Strengthening solidarity and increasing cooperation with third countries are essential to addressing the root causes of irregular migration. Ultimately, a coordinated strategy is vital for managing global migration challenges and fulfilling the citizenship requirements of host countries. Received: 20 October 2024 / Accepted: 20 November 2024 / Published: 3 December 2024

Changing Nigerian Migration Trends and its Hungarian Context

In a country like Nigeria, there is a decades-long tradition of internal and international migration, which has begun to strengthen especially since the country gained its independence. While the postcolonial period - from the 1960s until the 2000s - was marked primarily by the internal migration of workers to administrative and economic centres, with the rise of unemployment in the 2000s, the international migration of the Nigerians also strengthened. As a result of the diverse opportunities offered by international migration, at the 2015 migration summit, Nigerians turned up in relatively large numbers among migrants arriving in Europe via illegal routes. Although Nigerians are essentially leaving their country on legal routes, Nigerian illegal immigrants arriving in 2015-16 have aggravated the situation of Nigerian diaspora and painted a fundamentally negative image of Nigerians. Although most of them returned home, this still did not mean the elimination or alleviation of the problems that still spur migration in Nigeria.