Protecting the rights of irregular migrants: policy dilemmas and strategies

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• MPC: Migration Policy Centre

How can irregular migrants have access to their fundamental rights?

Irregular migrants experience a wide range of conditions and vulnerabilities. While some integrate to a certain degree into labour markets and communities, others suffer significant violations of their fundamental rights. Providing more effective protections of the rights of irregular migrants raises a number of difficult questions and policy dilemmas. For example, how can irregular migrants access and realise their fundamental rights in a meaningful way when their irregular residence status makes them liable to deportation? Can ‘firewall policies’ that prevent service providers and rights protection agencies from reporting the (irregular) migration status of the migrants they encounter to immigration enforcement agencies provide an effective response? Is there a tension between firewalls and regularisation policies and, if so, how should this tension be addressed? The panel will discuss these questions from economic, political, legal, and ethical perspectives. It is part of the MPC’s ongoing research programme on the Ethics of Migration Policy Dilemmas. 

Join the live stream on 24 May from 13:30-15:00 CEST