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

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. They are usually implemented with the internal and external strengthening of migration controls. This paper attempts to answer the questions arising from such programmes by surveying 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. It provides each country with a brief overview of its current migration policy, legal channels of immigration, and the undocumented population in the country's demographic profile. 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.