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Thus, NGOs argue, Member States should have some flexibility in responding to irregular migration and migration more generally. Antigone, a Greek NGO, emphasises that any legislation to be developed on regularisations needs to be based on a ‘good practice’ model: “A common European policy should take place only if the best practices (…) and the maximum standards of protection of migrants could be guaranteed as a content of a possible EU directive on regularisation.” 257 In a similar vein, another Greek NGO warns of developing strong regulations at the European level and instead argues in favour of evaluatory structures: “The great variations between many EU Member States, especially between North/South, create contradictions which often lead to compromises with the result that important national measures are missed. Nevertheless, there is a need for common policies. These policies should put great emphasis on the evaluation and the creation of structures which can be registered and intervene where appropriate.” 258 Measures suggested by NGOs include: defining the legal status of regularised persons, providing minimum standards for regularisation procedures, a permanent regularisation commission that would be composed of various stakeholders (including the judiciary and NGOs), promotion of regularisation mechanisms, exchange of experiences and best practices, the definition of basic regularisation principles, strengthening access to international protection and improving the asylum procedure (for example, by setting limits to the length of the procedures), and finally, agreements on regularisation mechanisms for particularly vulnerable groups. Generally, NGOs support a debate on regularisation policies on the European level – a debate in which NGOs should have a crucial role. However, NGOs do not necessarily see a need for developing strong legislative instruments on the EU level. As one Czech NGO argues; “issues related to regularisation programs and mechanisms must be discussed at a European level – especially with respect to the specific impact (both positive and negative) of regularisation policies that have already been implemented and with respect to the mutual sharing of experiences. In our opinion, it isn't necessary to have a common approach for regularisation programs and mechanisms on a Europe-wide level and we believe that these issues should fall within the competency of the individual member states. Our view is that the adoption of a common European approach to the issue of regularisation could well end up having a rather negative impact consisting of the attempt of the opponents of regularisation to minimize the range of options, which regularisation provides, or the opponents could end up being able to effectively find support for a general ban on regularisation programs across Europe.” 259 The need for a thorough debate on regularisation is also stressed by a Belgian immigrant association: “I think the keyword here is participation by all the stakeholders (including the undocumented themselves) not just the host countries in formulating, implementing (monitoring and follow-up) and evaluating policies, programs and mechanisms. Migrants have something to contribute.” 260 In conclusion, NGOs clearly see a role for the European Union in regularisation policy and welcome a debate on regularisation on the European level. Although there are concrete proposals for possible 257 ANTIGONE, op. cit. 258 Greek Migrants Forum, response, ICMPD NGO Questionnaire, 30 May 2008 259 Counselling Centre for Refugees/ Organization for Aid to Refugees, response, ICMPD NGO Questionnaire, 30 April 2008 260 Samahan ng mga Manggagawang Pilipino sa Belgium, response, ICMPD NGO Questionnaire, 13 May 2008 88
policy measures that could be adopted on the European level, NGO responses suggest that the main priority at this stage should be to open a debate on regularisation practices, which should focus on the exchange of experiences, the evaluation of past and ongoing regularisation measures and on the development of common principles and guidelines for regularisation practices. 5.4.3 Position of NGOs on the European level In addition to national level NGOs, there are a number of organisations on the European level which have formulated policies and recommendations regarding regularisations. Among these, PICUM – Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants – is probably the best-known organisation and one which sees advocacy for the rights of undocumented migrants as its core mandate. In its extensive 2005 report on “10 ways to protect undocumented migrant workers”, 261 PICUM argues that regularisation is in itself not a sufficient but a necessary tool to comprehensively protect undocumented migrant workers and improve their rights. This said, the report argues that undocumented migrant workers do have, and should have, basic social, employment and human rights and are in a position to assert these rights: “Nonetheless, there are many benefits for undocumented workers – as well as for society on the whole – if they obtain legal residence status.” 262 Regularisation is beneficial to society at large because “[h]aving a large group of people working in an informal economy undermines the economy as a whole. Regularizing undocumented workers is a way of combating the informal economy while at the same time improving the lives of these workers. Furthermore, regularization creates more visibility of the target group that social policies are meant to protect but who, because of their irregular status, are denied this protection.” 263 Since, as the report argues, lack of legal status is a “license to abuse”, regularising migrants in an irregular situation is a necessary, if insufficient, step to fight some of the consequences of illegality. However, “[a] comprehensive solution goes beyond the regularization of workers by tackling the reason why these low wage sectors always rely on undocumented workers.” 264 In a joint statement on the Commission’s communications on policy priorities in the fight against illegal immigration of third country nationals, European Christian Churches and Church organisations 265 argue for a comprehensive approach towards illegal migration. While acknowledging the role of border control and return, the organisations warn against the exclusive reliance on enforcement measures and, amongst other proposals, recommend the opening of legal avenues for immigration and the use of regularisation as an alternative to return. In addition, the joint statement 261 Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (Picum) (2005): Ten Ways to Protect Undocumented Migrant Workers. Brussels: Picum, available online at http://www.picum.org/LABOR/PICUM%20Ten%20Ways%20to%20Protect%20Undocumented%20Migrant%2 0Workers.pdf 262 Ibid. p.99 263 Ibid. p.102 264 Ibid. p.100 265 Caritas Europa, Churches Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME), Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community’s Working group on Migration (COMECE), International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), Jesuit Refugee Service Europe (JRS-Europe) and Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) (2006): Comments on the European Commission’s Communication on “Policy priorities in the fight against illegal immigration of third county nationals” COM (2006) 402 final. Brussels 89
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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
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Sunderhaus identifies several ratio
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whether it can be attributed to pul
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Box 2: 3-tier earned regularisation
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measures; it does address questions
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3.1.1 Regularisation Programmes Ove
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Nine Member States provided details
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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 and 80: stresses that “economic immigrati
Page 81 and 82: undocumented migrants by the Brusse
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: Table 8: Suggested target groups fo
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
Page 131 and 132: d) apprehension data should disting
Page 133 and 134: OPTION 11: REVIEW OF ADMINISTRATIVE
Page 135 and 136: 9 Conclusions and preferred policy
Page 137 and 138: management of irregular migration s
Page 139 and 140: more reserved than that of Business
Page 141 and 142: 9.5.2 Policy issues Previously (in
Page 143 and 144: 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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