The Illegality Stigma and the Role of State

The Illegality stigma and the role of State:

Unauthorized Immigrants and their Access to Rights in

Portugal

The Illegality Stigma and the Role of State

PhD Project:

Immigration and violent crime in Portugal in the start of the XXIst century (2002-2011)

Maria João Guia

PhD “Law, Justice and Citizenship in the XXIst Century”

SupervisorsProfessor Doutor António Casimiro Ferreira

Professor Doutor Pedro CaeiroProfessor João Pedroso

Thanks to:Hugo de Seabra (Gulbenkian), Acácio Pereira (SCIF-SEF),

Freya Beesley

The Illegality Stigma and the Role of State: Unauthorized Immigrants

and their Access to Rights in Portugal

Maria João Guia

Project: Without rights: the (limited) citizenship of illegal immigrants and their

access to law and justice in the European Union and Portugal(FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-009196)

Centre for Social Studies (CES) – University of Coimbra

S. Miguel, Azores, 15th september 2011

The Illegality Stigma and the Role of State

“No human being is illegal”

Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize winner 1986 and a holocaust survival

The Illegality Stigma and the Role of State

Some data about migrations

• 200 million international migrants (> 1 year out of country)

• 1 in each 35 person is an international migrant = 3% world

population;

• International migrants:

• 1970 = 82 million

• 2000 = 175 million

• 2005 = 200 million

• 2010 = 214 million

Fonte: RCMI, 2005 (data of UNDESA, World Bank, IOM, ILO UNHCR)

Century in motion

MigrantsNon mi-grants

The Illegality Stigma and the Role of State

• Estimates:

– 2.5 – 4 million irregular migrants cross international borders every

year

– 500 000 irregular migrants enter Europe every year

– 10.5 million migrants live irregularly in USA

– 25 million migrants living irregularly, in 2010 (OIT, 2010).

• Year 2000 5 million (from the 56,1million) migrants in Europe

(10%) were living there irregularly (around 2-8 million stocks in

irregularity, Vitorino, 2011)

Source: RCMI, 2005 (data de UNDESA, World Bank, IOM, ILO UNHCR; Hoefer, Rytina and Campbell, 2006)

The relevance of irregular migration

Avoid

Receiving State’s

exclusive perspective

Avoid

Treating immigration as

an unidirectional phenomenon

Preference for the wordmigrant

The choice of words: immigrants vs. migrants

Receiving country entry conditions

1 – Illegal

2 – Irregular

3 – Undocumented

4 – Unauthorized

5 – Clandestine

6 – Sans-papiers (fr.)

Common terms for the phenomenon

7 – Lathrometanastes (gr.)

8 – Unlawful

9 – Unwanted

10 - Noncitizen

Common terms for the phenomenon

11 – Other

Choice

DenialEvokes the ideaIllegal = criminal

Deprivation

A particular politicalposition

Pejorative sense

Migrants not following the rules of States

Terms chosen to describe this phenomenon:

Besides terms

Largescale regularisation processes

Decisão-Quadro 2002/629/JAI

Research gaining visibility since

1990

“Illegality”

States and irregularity

Nation-States:Definition of

borders

The entry into irregularity (“inflows”)

Irregularity as a status condition (“stocks”)

Three Dimensional

Process(Kraler 2009)

Three Dimensional

Process(Kraler 2009)

Exit (“outflows”)

What is irregularity then?

Flows: “demographic, geographic and status differentiated into categories

Illegal

Sovereignpower

Irregular

+Neutralposition

Not linearto establisha definition

• Differences between state policies• Definition of “illegal” stay in the Return Directive

Irregular vs. illegal

The Illegality Stigma and the Role of State

Is immigrating a right?

NO

The Illegality Stigma and the Role of State

There is a connection between illegality

and exclusion-restriction of rights

(Cámara, 2010)

Creation of spaces of “non-existence”

(Coutin, 2000)

AUTONOMY

Tourists

Business men

Migrants

Refugees

Victims of crimes

RISK

Boaventura de Sousa Santos, 2009

“The transnacional third world”

The Illegality Stigma and the Role of State

Migrating illegally/irregularly is

a crime in Portugal?

NoAiding illegal immigration is a crime!

Concession… of a Resident Permit to victims of third country immigrants that cooperate with authorities (Directive 2004/81/CE)Sanctions… and measures against employees of third country citizens irregularity living in Portugal

Measures… taken by all authority forces and NGO’s to protect and rehabilitate the victim

• Rigorous prevention and repression (trafficking of Human beings and Aiding illegal immigration)

• Protection of the rights of victims

The rights of immigrants victims of crimes in irregularity in Portugal (artº 109º-115º Law 23/07, 4th July)

Summary

- The use of terms is not consensual;

- Many terms involve an intentional emphasis;

- Migrants in irregularity have some rights;

- Migrants in irregularity, victims of some crimes,

may access in Portugal to a Resident Permit.

The Illegality Stigma and the Role of State

Thank you!

Maria João Guiaeucaliptar@hotmail.com