REGINE Regularisations in Europe Final Report - European ...

3 Regularisation practices across the EU
3.1 General patterns of programmes and mechanisms
Following the division of regularisation processes into programmes and mechanisms (as defined in
Chapter 1), we have attempted to collect and collate statistical data on both of these procedures for all
Member States. Despite our best efforts, and the provision of information by 22 countries (out of 27
requested), the data are in general far from satisfactory. For regularisation programmes, we requested
numbers of applications and grants of legalisation: only five countries 94 were able to provide both
figures for their relevant programmes, with the majority (ten countries) cognisant of only one of the
two figures. The situation with regularisation mechanisms is considerably worse, with many countries
simply not recording the data. Thus, the data provided considerably understate the award of
regularised statuses by mechanisms, and to a lesser extent through programmes: for this reason, we
have supplemented official data with figures taken from available research. Furthermore, it is evident
that de facto regularisations of persons with ethnic ties have been completely excluded from Member
States’ evaluations of their own policies. Even though, typically, ‘co-ethnics’ are awarded citizenship,
the transition from an irregular status to legality is, in our view, a regularisation. The number can only
be crudely estimated, but for just one country (Greece), is at a minimum of 350,000 persons awarded
either citizenship or documented as legally resident on the basis of ethnicity. 95
Given the above caveats, we can state that over the period 1996-2007, just under 4.2 million persons
applied for regularisation through programmes in 16 Member States. 96 If we include the 2006 de facto
regularisation in Italy, the total number of applications exceeds 4.6 million. 97 Data on applications in
the framework of regularisation mechanisms are not generally available: about 305,000 persons are
known to have been awarded legal status through mechanisms in eleven countries. 98 Another six
countries seem to have no data on their awards of legal status through mechanisms. Thus, a total of
almost 5 million persons are recorded as having applied for regularised status during this timeframe –
either through time-limited programmes or through case-by-case regularisation mechanisms. Taking
into account the substantial missing data, 99 the total is easily 5.5 million. Adding to this, the ‘missing’
data on co-ethnics (Greece, Germany, Hungary et al.), the total number of persons involved in
transitions from irregularity to a legal status may exceed 6 million.
94 Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Spain.
95 A similar, although analytically distinct, category of persons consists of descendants of emigrants of Member
State who may have a claim to citizenship of a Member State, and thus, European Union citizenship. In
particular in regard to Italy (where nationality legislation was changed to expand the population eligible for
Italian citizenship prior to the 2005 elections), Portugal and Spain this involves considerable numbers of
persons. It is unclear, to what extent ex-post status adjustments (i.e. registration of citizenship) takes place in
their country of citizenship.
96 Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands,
Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
97 Figures for the 2006 Italian de facto regularisation are taken from Cuttitta, P. (2008): ‘Yearly quotas and
country-reserved shares in Italian immigration policy’, Migration Letters, 5/1, pp. 41-51.
98 Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia.
99 Official data on applications or grants through programmes are missing completely for Denmark, Estonia,
Lithuania and the UK; data on individual programmes are missing for Germany, Greece, Poland and Portugal.
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