Irregular Migration - Period 4

One of the consequences of the regulation of migration is the existence of migration that is considered to be 'irregular'. In the past 25 years, law and policy have increasingly focused on preventing irregular entry, on making irregular presence more difficult, and on return and removal of irregular migrants. In this course, law and irregular migration will be the focus of attention. This field has been characterized by conceptual innovations. In addition to the classical administrative law approach to migration, criminal and private law have been added to the arsenal of migration policies. In addition, migration controls do not only take place upon entry but have been delocalized. They now take place at foreign airports during check-in, on the high seas or in the territorial waters of third countries, or by third states (forms of externalization). But they also take place throughout the territory of the state concerned by requiring legal residence for entering into a labour contract, renting a house, opening a bank account, and marriage (forms of internalization). Both internalization and externalization often involve private parties as 'deputy sheriffs'. In these ways, law has been used as an instrument of states to govern irregular migration. However, law has also been used in order to counter state prohibition of irregular migration. For example, undocumented migrants have campaigned for their basic rights in the USA as well as in Europe. They have sought to regain some of the rights which have been deprived by the conceptual and legal innovations sanctioning irregular migration. They have done so in the fields of immigration detention, pushbacks, shelter, racial profiling, border deaths, and labour rights. This course focuses on the tensions and ambiguities that arise in the process where both states and migrants seek to recruit the law for their purposes. This course will include reading materials containing empirical information about the social realities in which these legal strategies are deployed.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) awards credits based on the ECTS system. Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.