REGINE Regularisations in Europe Final Report - European ...

Nine Member States provided details on criteria used in 26 regularisation programmes. The
importance of various criteria or conditions is shown in Table 3 below.
Table 3: Importance of selected criteria in regularisation programmes
Specific criteria Essential Desired Not relevant
Presence in the territory 22 0 3
Length of residence 17 3 6
Family ties 3 11 11
Ethnic ties 0 0 25
Nationality 4 1 20
Integration efforts 3 3 20
No criminal record 17 5 3
Employment 8 11 7
Health condition 3 0 22
Other 5 0 20
‘Presence in the territory’ before a certain date stands out as the most important criterion used and
has been seen as essential in 22 programmes. Length of residence and lack of criminal record both
have been regarded as essential in 17 programmes and desired in three and five programmes,
respectively.
Employment is another important criterion, being mentioned in respect to 19 programmes as either
essential or desired. However, only eight programmes viewed employment as an essential criterion.
Family ties – mentioned altogether as important in 14 programmes (although only three times as
essential) is another frequently cited criterion. Other criteria are much less often mentioned as
essential or desired, with integration efforts (six times, three times as essential) and nationality (five
times in total, in which four as essential) are more important. Health reasons are only cited in three
programmes, while ethnic ties are considered as irrelevant in respect to all programmes on which
information was reported.
Figure 2, below shows the criteria seen as ‘essential’ by frequency of occurrence in the 26
programmes for which information was provided.
Figure 2
Conditions considered as essential
25
20
15
10
5
0
Other
Health
condition
Employment
No criminal
record
Integration
efforts
Nationality
Ethnic ties
Family ties
Length of
residence
Presence in
the territory
33