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Illegal immigration refers to immigration across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country. Under this definition, an illegal immigrant is a foreigner who either has illegally crossed an international political border, be it by land, sea, or air, or a foreigner who has entered a country legally but then overstays his/her Visa in order to live and/or work therein. In politics, the term may imply a larger set of social issues and time constraints with disputed consequences in areas such as economy, social welfare, education, health care, slavery, prostitution, crime, legal protections, voting rights, public services, and human rights. Illegal Emigration would be leaving a country in a manner that violates the laws of the country being exited.

Terminology

Europe

• illegal immigrant^[1]
• clandestine workers^[2]
• sans papiers^[3]

United States

Main article: Illegal immigration to the United States#Terminology

Terms used in the United States include:

• illegal alien [the official term in legislation and the border patrol for a person who has entered the country illegally or is residing in the United States illegally after entering legally (for example, using a tourist visa and remaining after the visa expires)]^[4]
  • illegal immigrant (those who enter the United States through means that are broadly deemed illegal in nature)
  • undocumented immigrant/migrant/alien/worker/resident (terminology most often used by social progressives)
  • unauthorized immigrant/migrant/alien/worker/resident
  • paperless immigrant/migrant/alien/worker/resident
  • immigrant "without immigration status"
  • out of status (those whose lawful status has expired, those who have overstayed their visas, etc.)
  • illegrant "illegal immigrant" (slang term)
  • Unnaturalized immigrant

  Other

  • boat people
  • IIs (illegal immigrants)

  Causes

  War

  One motive of illegal immigration is to escape civil war or repression in the country of origin. Non-economic push factors include persecution (religious and otherwise), frequent abuse, bullying, oppression, and genocide, and risks to civilians during war. Political motives traditionally motivate refugee flows - to escape dictatorship for instance.
  
  After decades of armed conflict, roughly one of every 10 Colombians now live abroad.^[5] Figures from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security indicate that Colombia is the fourth-leading source country of unauthorized immigration to the United States. The estimated number of unauthorized Colombian residents in the United States has almost tripled from 51,000 in 1990 to 141,000 in 2000.^[6]
  
  The largest per-capita source of immigrants to the United States comes from El Salvador, for which up to a third of the population lives outside the country, mostly in the United States.^[7] According to the Santa Clara County Office of Human Relations.

  Despite the fact that the U.S. government’s role in the Salvadoran conflict was unique in sustaining the prolongation of the civil conflict, the government and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) extended little sympathy to the people affected by the war. In the 1980s, the INS granted only 2% of political asylum applications, claiming that democracy existed in El Salvador and that reports of U.S. and government-sponsored “death squads” were overblown. As a response to the U.S. government’s failure to address the situation of Salvadoran refugees in the U.S., American activists established a loose network to aid refugees. Operating in clear violation of U.S. immigration laws, these activists took refugees into their houses, aided their travel, hid them and helped them find work. This became known as the “sanctuary movement”.^[8]

  
  
  The United States will accept 70,000 refugees in FY 2007. President Bush stated that his eventual goal is a program that resettles 90,000 refugees in the United States each year. In 2006, the State Department officially re-opened the Vietnamese resettlement program. In recent years, the main refugee sending-region has been Africa (Somalia, Liberia, Sudan, Ethiopia).^[9]

  To reunite families

  Some illegal immigrants seek to live with loved ones, such as a spouse or other family members.^[10][11][12] This is particularly true for the families of binational same sex couples.^[13] The Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force (LGIRTF) warns binational same sex couples in the United States that marriage may actually increase the likelihood of becoming undocumented, rather than decreasing it. [1] [2] Other individuals seek to distance themselves from their spouses.

  Poverty

  Another reason for illegal immigration is to escape poverty. Natural disasters and overpopulation can amplify poverty-driven migration flows. According to CBS 60 Minutes, U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez, one of the first U.S. servicemen to die in combat in Iraq, a former street child in Guatemala having been orphaned at age 8, first entered the United States as an illegal immigrant in 1997 to escape poverty, and dreamed of being an architect.^[14] Sometimes the person moves over the border because the wage-labor ratio is much higher in the neighboring country, as is the case with the illegal immigration to the United States from Mexico.

  Prostitution and slavery

  Illegal immigrants may also be trafficked. After the end of the legal international slave trade by the European nations and the United States in the early 19th century, the illegal importation of slaves has continued, albeit at much reduced levels. Although not as common as in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, some women are undoubtedly smuggled into the United States and Canada. The so-called "white slave trade" referred to the smuggling of women, almost always under duress or fraud, for the purposes of forced prostitution. Now more generically called "sexual slavery" it continues to be a problem, particularly in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, though there has been an increase in the number of cases in the U.S. [3] [4] People may also be kidnapped or tricked into slavery to work as laborers, for example in factories. Those trafficked in this manner often face additional barriers to escaping slavery, since their status as illegal immigrants makes it difficult for them to gain access to help or services. For example Burmese women trafficked into Thailand and forced to work in factories or as prostitutes may not speak the language and may be vulnerable to abuse by police due to their illegal immigrant status.^[15]
  
  In the Dominican Republic, Haitian migrant workers are sold into slavery on Dominican Sugar plantations, including children.^[16][17]Some Haitian children have allegedly been forced to work as prostitutes in the Dominican sexual tourism industry.^[18] Currently the Dominican sex trade ranks third in the world, only behind Thailand and the Philippines.^[19]

  Methods

  Border crossing

  

  Border control at sea by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection
  Immigrants from nations that do not have an automatic visa agreements, or who would not otherwise qualify for a visa, often cross the borders illegally in some areas like the United States–Mexico border, the Mona Channel between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, the Strait of Gibraltar, Fuerteventura, and the Strait of Otranto. Because these methods are illegal, they are often dangerous. Would-be immigrants suffocate in shipping containers,^[20] boxcars,^[21] and trucks [5], sink in shipwrecks caused by unseaworthy vessels [6], die of dehydration [7] or exposure during long walks without water.
  
  A official estimate puts the number of people who died in illegal crossings across the U.S.-Mexican border between 1998 and 2004 at 1954 people (see immigrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border).
  
  Human smuggling is the practice of intermediaries aiding illegal immigrants in crossing over international borders in financial gain, often in large groups. Human smuggling differs from, but is sometimes associated with, human trafficking. A human smuggler will facilitate illegal entry into a country for a fee, but on arrival at their destination, the smuggled person is usually free. Trafficking involves a process of using physical force, fraud, or deception to obtain and transport people.
  
  Types of notorious human smugglers include Snakehead gangs present in mainland China (especially in Fujian) that smuggle laborers into Pacific Rim nations (making Chinatowns frequent centers of illegal immigration) [8] and "coyotes," who smuggle illegal immigrants to the Southwestern United States and have been known to abuse or even kill migrants in attempts to have the debt repaid. [9] Sometimes immigrants are abandoned by their human traffickers if there are difficulties, often dying in the process. Others may be victims of intentional killing.

  Overstaying a visa

  Some illegal immigrants enter a country legally and then overstay or violate their visa. [10] For example, most of the estimated 200,000 illegal immigrants in Canada (perhaps as high as 500,000), are refugee claimants whose refugee applications were rejected but who have not yet been ejected from the country.^[22]
  
  A related way of becoming an illegal immigrant is through bureaucratic means. For example, a person can be allowed to remain in a country - or be protected from expulsion - because he/she needs special pension for a medical condition, etc., without being able to regularize his/her situation and obtain a work and/or residency permit, let alone naturalization. Hence, categories of people being neither illegal immigrants nor legal citizens are created, living in a judicial "no man's land". Another example is formed by children of foreigners born in countries observing jus soli ("right of territory"), such as France. In that country, one may obtain French nationality if one is born in France - but, due to recent legislative changes, it is only granted at the age of eighteen, and only upon request.

  Legal and political status

  See also: Illegal immigration to the United States, Immigration to the United States, Australian immigration, Immigration to the United Kingdom, Immigration to Canada, Illegal immigrants in Malaysia, Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

  
  
  Many countries have had or currently have laws restricting immigration for economic or nationalistic political reasons. Whether a person is permitted to stay in a country legally may be decided by quotas or point systems or may be based on considerations such as family ties (marriage, elderly mother, etc.). Exceptions relative to political refugees or to sick people are also common. Immigrants who do not participate in these legal proceedings or who are denied permission under them and still enter or stay in the country are illegal immigrants. [11]
  
  Most countries have laws requiring workers to have proper documentation, often intended to prevent or minimize the employment of unauthorized immigrants. However the penalties against employers are often small and the acceptable identification requirements vague and ill-defined as well as being seldom checked or enforced, making it easy for employers to hire unauthorized labor. Unauthorized immigrants are especially popular with many employers because they can pay less than the legal minimum wage or have unsafe working conditions, secure in the knowledge that few unauthorized workers will report the abuse to the authorities. Often the minimum wages in one country can be several times the prevailing wage in the unauthorized immigrant's country, making even these jobs attractive to the unauthorized worker.
  
  In response to the outcry following popular knowledge of the Holocaust, the newly-established United Nations held an international conference on refugees, where it was decided that refugees (legally defined to be people who are persecuted in their original country and then enter another country seeking safety) should be exempted from immigration laws. [12] It is, however, up to the countries involved to decide if a particular immigrant is a refugee or not, and hence whether they are subject to the immigration controls.
  
  The right to freedom of movement of an individual within National borders is often contained within the constitution or in a country's human rights legislation but these rights are restricted to citizens and exclude all others. Some argue that the freedom of movement both within and between countries is a basic human right and that nationalism and immigration policies of state governments violate this human right that those same governments recognize within their own borders. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, fundamental human rights are violated when citizens are forbidden to leave their country. (Article 13). This, however, only assists immigrants with the first part of their immigration process and does not assist with the second, finding a new home.
  
  Since illegal immigrants without proper legal status have no valid identification documents such as identity cards, they may have reduced or no access to public health systems, proper housing, education and banks. This lack of access may result in the creation or expansion of illegal underground forgery to provide this documentation. [13].
  
  When the authorities are overwhelmed in their efforts to stop illegal immigration, they have historically provided amnesty. Amnesties, which are becoming less tolerated by the citizenry, [14] waive the "subject to deportation" clause associated with illegal aliens.

  By region

  European Union

  The European Union is developing a common system for immigration and asylum and a single external border control strategy.
  
  In France, helping an illegal immigrant (providing shelter, for example) is prohibited by a law passed on December 27, 1994 under the cohabitation between socialist President François Mitterrand and right-wing Premier ministre Edouard Balladur [15]. The law was heavily criticized by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the CIMADE or the GISTI, left-wing political parties such as the Greens or the French Communist Party, and trade-unions such as the magistrates' Syndicat de la magistrature.
  
  The Turkish newspaper Hürriyet published stories once in July 2004 and a second time in May 2006 that Hellenic Coast Guard ships were caught on film cruising as near as a few hundred meters off the Turkish coast and abandoning clandestine immigrants to the sea. This practice presumably resulted in the drowning of six people between Chios and Karaburun Peninsula on 26 September 2006 while three others disappeared and 31 were saved by Turkish gendarmes and fishermen.^[23] However, there are numerous non-Turkish claims and testimonies that Turkish authorities and/or citizens lead immigrants through the sea, often resulting to the abandonment and sometimes drowning of said immigrants.

  Deaths

  According to the Fortress Europe observatory on the victims of illegal migration, at least 8,175 people have died since 1988 along the European frontiers. Among them, 2,755 were lost or missing in the sea.
  
  In the Mediterranean Sea, and through the Atlantic Ocean toward Spain, 6,027 immigrants died. In the Sicily channel 1,929 people died along the routes from Libya and Tunisia to Malta and Italy, including 1,118 missing; 33 other people drowned sailing from Algeria to Sardinia. Along the routes from Mauritania, Morocco and Algeria toward Spain, through the Gibraltar Strait or off the Canary Islands, at least 2,929 people died, including 1,206 who were missing. Then 514 people died in the Aegean sea, between Turkey and Greece, including 252 missing. 474 people died in the Adriatic sea, between Albania, Montenegro and Italy, including 136 missing. But the sea is not crossed only aboard makeshift boats. Sailing hidden inside registered cargo vessels, 148 men died by asphyxiation or drowning.
  
  In order to arrive to the sea, the dangerous passage of the Sahara is necessary. People have crossed it on trucks and off-road vehicles along the tracks between Sudan, Chad, Niger and Mali one one side and Libya and Algeria on the other. On this passage at least 1,069 people have died since 1996. But according to the survivors, nearly every travel counts its victims. So the number of the victims could be higher and higher. The data also includes the victims of the collective deportations practiced by Tripoli, Algeri and Rabat Governments, accustomed to abandoning groups of hundreds migrants in open desert border areas.
  
  In Libya, serious migrants abuses have been recorded. There are not any official data, but in 2006 Human Rights Watch and AFVIC accused Tripoli of arbitrary arrests, beatings and tortures in the migrant detention centers, three of which are financed by Italy. In September 2000 in Zawiyah, in northwest Libya, at least 560 foreigners were killed during racist putsches.
  
  Traveling stowaways in the trucks, 247 people were found dead in Albania, France, Germany, Greece, Turkey, U.K., Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Hungary.
  
  There are still mine-fields along Evros river between the Greece-Turkey border. Here at least 88 people died over the mines trying to enter Greece.
  
  Additionally, 51 persons drowned crossing rivers delimiting the frontier between Croatia and Bosnia; Turkey and Greece; Slovakia and Austria; and Slovenia and Italy. Forty-one people froze to death in their tracks through the icy mountains at the border among in Turkey, Greece and Slovakia; 20 people died under the trains in the Channel tunnel trying to reach England; 33 people were shot dead by Spanish and Moroccan police or injured along the border fence of Ceuta and Melilla Spanish enclaves in Morocco; 11 people burnt after a deportation center in the Netherlands caught fire; 11 people were killed by Turkish, French and Yugoslav policemen; and 8 men were found dead hidden in the undercarriages of planes.

  United States

  Main article: Illegal immigration to the United States

  Illegal immigration has been a longstanding issue in the United States, creating immense controversy.
  
  The Pew Hispanic Center state that 57% of illegal aliens are of Mexican origin and about 24% are of non-Mexican Latin American origin. [16] They also report that while the number of legal immigrants (including LPRs, refugees, and asylees) arriving has not varied substantially since the 1980s, the number of illegal aliens has increased dramatically and, since the mid 1990s, has surpassed the number of legal immigrants. [17]

  Argentina

  Illegal immigration has been a relatively important factor in recent Argentine demographics. Most illegal immigrants come from Bolivia, and Paraguay, countries which border Argentina to the north. Smaller numbers arrive from Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Ukraine, Peru, Ecuador, Romania, Dominican Republic, Cuba and the People's Republic of China. The Argentine government estimates that 750,000 inhabitants lack official documents and has launched a program called Patria Grande ("Greater Homeland"), to encourage illegal immigrants to regularize their status; so far some 200,000 applications have been processed under the program. Argentina remains the only Latin American nation that holds a positive net migration rate.

  Mexico

  The Mexican constitution restricts non-citizens from participating in politics, holding office, or serving on the crews of Mexican-flagged ships or airplanes.
  
  In the first six months of 2005 alone, more than 120,000 people from Central America have been deported to their countries of origin. This is a significantly higher rate than in 2002, when for the entire year, only 130,000 people were deported [18]. Another important group of people are those of Chinese origin, who pay about $5,500 to smugglers to be taken to Mexico from Hong Kong. It is estimated that 2.4% of rejections for work permits in Mexico correspond to Chinese citizens [19]. Many women from Eastern Europe, Asia, the United States, and Central and South America are also offered jobs at table dance establishments in large cities throughout the country causing the National Institute of Migration (INM) in Mexico to raid strip clubs and deport foreigners who work without the proper documentation [20]. In 2004, the INM deported 188,000 people at a cost of $10 million [21].
  
  Illegal immigration of Cubans through Cancún tripled from 2004 to 2006 [22]

  Malaysia

  Main article: Illegal immigrants in Malaysia

  An ethnic Indian Malaysian was recently sentenced to whipping and 10 months in prison for hiring six illegal immigrants at his restaurant. "I think that after this, Malaysian employers will be afraid to take in foreign workers (without work permits). They will think twice," said immigration department prosecutor Azlan Abdul Latiff. “This is the first case where an employer is being sentenced to caning,” he told. Illegal immigrants also face caning before being deported.^[24] There are an estimated 800,000 illegal immigrants in Malaysia.^[25]

  See also

  • Illegal emigration
  • Alien (law)
  • Aliyah Bet, illegal immigration by Jews to the British Mandate of Palestine in violation of British restrictions against such immigration

  References

  1. ^ Call for illegal immigrant study at [23] (accessed Aug, 2006)
  2. ^ Reem Saad. "Egyptian Workers in Paris: Pilot Ethnography", SRC, American University in Cairo, May 2006. 
  3. ^ The undocumented Africans "of St. Ambroise" Bok.net. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
  4. ^ U.S. Customs & Border Protection, Frequently asked questions. Department of

Homeland Security. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
5. ^ Colombia: In the Crossfire. Migration Information Source
"In the last decade, large-scale emigration has marked Colombian society, with roughly one of every 10 Colombians now living abroad. Internally, the country has been confronted with a major humanitarian crisis, as forced displacement has reached alarming proportions during the same period. Political, social, and economic problems, coupled with widespread insecurity, have fueled both voluntary and forced migration, while the same factors have acted as powerful deterrents for immigration to the country. After 40 years of armed conflict, various fruitless attempts at peace negotiations, and a persistent drug trade, Colombia remains plagued by violence." (November 2005).
6. ^ Office of Policy and Planning U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service: Estimates of the unauthorized immigrant population residing in the United States: 1990 to 2000 page 9.
7. ^ To slow immigration from El Salvador, understand its causes Baltimore Sun, January 11, 2007
8. ^ Knowledge of immigrant nationalities of Santa Clara County (KIN): El Salvador
9. ^ Don Barnett of The Center For Immigration Studies, A new era of refugee resettlement. American Immigration LLC, ILW.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
10. ^ N.C. Aizenman, Young migrants risk all to reach U.S.: Thousands detained after setting out from Central America without parents Washington Post, August 28, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
11. ^ Rosario Vital, Love unites them, La Migra separates them El Observador, November 30, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
12. ^ After such respect, such humiliation. Haaretz, January 31, 2005.
13. ^ Family, unvalued: Discrimination, denial, and the fate of binational same-sex couples under U.S. law. Human Rights Watch, May 2, 2006 Faced with the unpalatable choice between leaving and living with the person they love in violation of U.S. immigration laws, foreign-born partners may become undocumented—staying after their visa expires.
14. ^ The Death Of Lance Cpl. Gutierrez: Simon Reports On Non-Citizen SoldiersCBS 60 Minutes, Aug. 20, 2003
15. ^ Bales, Kevin (1999). Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22463-9. 
16. ^ The Price of Sugar. thepriceofsugar.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
17. ^ "No Papers, No Rights" New York Times 2005
18. ^ Human trafficking & modern-day slavery: Dominican Republic. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
19. ^ Juan O. Tamayo, Dominican prostitution: Cheap, prevalent and accepted. The Miami Herald. June 24, 1997. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
20. ^ CBC News, Three illegal migrants die in shipping container. November 11, 2000. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
21. ^ Siskind Susser Bland, At least 52 immigrants die of heat crossing from Mexico. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
22. ^ Marina Jimenez. "200,000 illegal immigrants toiling in Canada's underground economy", Globe and Mail, 11/15/03. 
23. ^ Delete the Border quoting Khaleej Times; ADN Kronos Survivors of the immigrant boat tragedy accuse Greeks (in English) - [24] [25] [26]. The newspaper Hürriyet (in Turkish). Three of the drowned were Tunisians, one was Algerian, one Palestinian and the other Iraqi. The three disappeared were also Tunisians.
24. ^ Malaysian man receives unusually harsh punishment for employing illegals
25. ^ Indians among illegal immigrants rounded up in Malaysia