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such cases should be treated differently; (iii) sanctions should only be the last resort if it is clear that the employer acts repeatedly and fully aware that his employment practices are in breach of the law. 225 On the whole, UEAPME has a much more pronounced position on EU policies vis-à-vis irregular migration, reflecting the fact that it is small and medium sized businesses that are the main employers of irregular migrant workers and would be most affected by measures adopted at the level of the European Union. The negative evaluation of the incentives for irregular migrants to co-operate with authorities and the protection provisions in the proposal for a directive on employers’ sanctions suggests a possible negative attitude towards regularisation measures aimed at addressing informal work and combined with sanctions and increased obligations for employers. However, like BusinessEurope, UEAPME welcomes the procedural elements of the proposed framework directive on a single application procedure as potentially greatly increasing transparency and reducing bureaucracy. 5.4 Positions of Non-Governmental Organisations and migrant organisations 5.4.1 Introduction Non-governmental organisations have long had a pivotal role in representing migrants’ interests, promoting migrant rights and providing services to migrant communities, and in particular also undocumented migrants with or without limited access to public services. In many European countries, NGOs also are the most active actors regarding campaigns for regularisation, 226 notably in Belgium, France, Portugal and Spain, where NGOs have successfully mobilised around regularisation programmes. Similarly, the current pro-regularisation campaign “Strangers into Citizens” in the UK is led by an alliance of NGOS, although it also includes other societal actors. In Ireland, NGOs, together with trade unions, currently campaign for regularisation, as do NGOs in Belgium 227 and Germany. 228 Although NGOs in other EU Member States have been less successful in promoting regularisation campaigns, they nevertheless have played and continue to play an important role in providing legal counselling and advice to irregular migrants. Migrant organisations – organisations run by and for immigrants – have, on the whole, a much lower profile and only a few migrant organisations have taken on a more pronounced role in promoting regularisation or providing legal advice. However, as advocacy NGOs, migrant organisations have played an important role in disseminating information about ongoing regularisation campaigns. An overview of current NGO activities with regard to regularisation is presented in Table 6. Their role – actual and desired – in regard to regularisation policy is described in Table 7. The following review of NGO positions is based mainly on responses to a short questionnaire developed by the research team and disseminated among NGOs specialised or otherwise working on 225 Ibid., pp.1-2 226 See Laubenthal, B. (2006): op. cit. on the emergence of pro-regularisation movements, mainly led by civil society organisations, in France, Spain and Switzerland. 227 See for example the activities undertaken by the Belgian NGO Coordination et Initiatives pour et avec les Réfugiés et Étrangers (CIRE) on regularisation under http://www.cire.irisnet.be/appuis/regul/accueil-regul.html 228 See for example the „Bleiberechtsbüro“, an initiative of the Bavarian refugee council (Bayrischer Flüchtlingsrat e.V.), online at http://www.bleiberechtsbuero.de/ 74
undocumented migrants by the Brussels-based NGO Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM). 229 Altogether, 36 responses were received, two of which were from trade unions and one from a research institution (the latter are not considered here). In addition, various NGOs provided us with position papers and other documents on which we also draw in the following. In total, we received responses from 10 EU countries. In addition, we also received responses from three NGOs organised at the European level and one NGO and a trade union in Switzerland. The relatively largest number of responses was received from Greece and Spain; of the countries with significant experiences of regularisation measures, NGOs from two countries – Italy and the UK – did not provide any responses to the questionnaire. 230 Since the mid-1990s, when a new stage in the Europeanisation of migration and asylum policies was reached with the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties and the parallel development of an EU agenda on non-discrimination and the fight against xenophobia and racism, several umbrella organisations of NGOs and faith based organisations that are specialised or otherwise working on migration issues have been formed at the European level. 231 These include various Church organisations such as Caritas Europa, the Churches Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME), the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community’s Working group on Migration (COMECE), the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), the Jesuit Refugee Service Europe (JRS- Europe) and the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA). The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), the European Coordination for Foreigners' Rights to Family Life, the Platform on International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), Solidar and the campaign for the adoption of the UN Migrant Convention - December 18 - are probably the most relevant non-denominational European level NGOs focusing on migrant issues. Most of these organisations have adopted positions on EU approaches and possible alternative approaches to undocumented migration, including regularisation, which we will examine in the last section of our review of NGO positions. 229 For more information, see www.picum.org ; we are grateful to Don Flynn and Michèle LeVoy and the enthusiastic interns at PICUM for readily supporting us in disseminating the NGO questionnaires and getting the support of NGOs for this part of the study. 230 Questionnaires were translated into Greek and Spanish which explains the high turnout for these two countries. In addition, questionnaires were also translated into French. The lack of an Italian version probably explains why no responses were received from Italy. 231 See on the emergence of European NGOs working on migration issues Geddes, A. (2000): Immigration and European Integration. Towards Fortress Europe? European Policy Research Series. Manchester: Manchester University Press, in particular pp.131-151 75
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REGINE Regularisations in Europe St
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CONTRIBUTORS Principal authors Mart
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Preface In December 2007, the Europ
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1 Terms, definitions and scope 1.1
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Table 1: Types of illegal or irregu
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1.3 Freedom of movement rights and
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1.4 The meaning of ‘regularisatio
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Regularisation Mechanism A regulari
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2 Previous comparative studies on r
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Generally, the focus of SOPEMI repo
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enefiting from regularisation has s
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amnesty and moreover involved (limi
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2. 3 The Odysseus study on regulari
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etween expediency and obligations c
Page 29 and 30: Sunderhaus identifies several ratio
Page 31 and 32: whether it can be attributed to pul
Page 33 and 34: Box 2: 3-tier earned regularisation
Page 35 and 36: measures; it does address questions
Page 37 and 38: 3.1.1 Regularisation Programmes Ove
Page 39 and 40: Nine Member States provided details
Page 41 and 42: Figure 3 Grants of regularised stat
Page 43 and 44: Box 3: Regularisation policy in Swi
Page 45 and 46: 3.2 Regularisation as a policy resp
Page 47 and 48: Table 5: Comparative table of regul
Page 49 and 50: case in Europe, alongside the more
Page 51 and 52: that a year after regularisation so
Page 53 and 54: treatment according to nationality,
Page 55 and 56: iii. issues of advance planning iv.
Page 57 and 58: iv. the requirement to appear in pe
Page 59 and 60: denying residence permits to existi
Page 61 and 62: efugees under the provisions of the
Page 63 and 64: 4 Government positions on policy 15
Page 65 and 66: 5 Positions of social actors 5.1 In
Page 67 and 68: Since the 1990s - and in some count
Page 69 and 70: live their lives without fear.” 1
Page 71 and 72: admission policies. 181 The Danish
Page 73 and 74: and useful, if planned and implemen
Page 75 and 76: depend on (unskilled) immigrant lab
Page 77 and 78: migration”. 209 In the opinion of
Page 79: stresses that “economic immigrati
Page 83 and 84: NGO/Country Main activities in rega
Page 85 and 86: NGO/Country Assessment of own role/
Page 87 and 88: known that this makes them vulnerab
Page 89 and 90: eaching reforms of the overall fram
Page 91 and 92: Accord of March 2008 have not yet b
Page 93 and 94: Table 8: Suggested target groups fo
Page 95 and 96: policy measures that could be adopt
Page 97 and 98: followed by the granting of any sta
Page 99 and 100: for irregular migrants, while Italy
Page 101 and 102: interpretations of the EU directive
Page 103 and 104: considered to be “flexible, adapt
Page 105 and 106: iii. Measures and sanctions against
Page 107 and 108: of international protection, it is
Page 109 and 110: 7.2 European Union approaches to il
Page 111 and 112: immigration.” 321 Finally, the st
Page 113 and 114: involve large numbers. Secondly, th
Page 115 and 116: 8 Policy Options OPTION 1: REGULATI
Page 117 and 118: initiative. In the case of permanen
Page 119 and 120: Ultimately, a comprehensive definit
Page 121 and 122: nor need it be seen as an endorseme
Page 123 and 124: permits, Member States should take
Page 125 and 126: OPTION 6: STRENGTHENING THE PRINCIP
Page 127 and 128: Rationale and possible impact: Upon
Page 129 and 130: information exchange could contribu
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d) apprehension data should disting
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OPTION 11: REVIEW OF ADMINISTRATIVE
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9 Conclusions and preferred policy
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management of irregular migration s
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more reserved than that of Business
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9.5.2 Policy issues Previously (in
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Option 6a Facilitating access to lo
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Italy Ministerio Interno, Dipartime
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Federacion Andalucia ACOGE, Respons
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11 References - secondary sources 1
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United Kingdom, European Democrat G
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Hollifield, J. (2004): ‘France: R
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Papademetriou, D. (2005): The “Re
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Watts, J. (2002): Immigration Polic
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European Commission, Proposal for a
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