Chapter 1. Introduction: Illegal immigration as a selective and dynamic process in different settings.- Chapter 2. Dealing with irregular immigration in Southern and Western Europe.- Chapter 3. The European Union and asylum seekers: between human rights and national sovereignty.- Chapter 4. Irregular immigrants as social actors.- Chapter 5. NGOs and civil societies.- Chapter 6. Civil servants and street level bureaucracies.

Focusing on the dynamics of irregular immigration in Southern EU Member States, this book analyses how the phenomenon is managed at national and local levels in different legal and political systems. In doing so, it answers vital policy questions regarding the continued existence of irregular migration, pathways to legality, and relations between unauthorized migrants and receiving societies. The author argues that while the economic crisis and migrant flows coming from the South and East of the Mediterranean Sea have called this regime into question, it is the needs of labour markets in Southern Europe and compliance with European Union rules that has had a more dominant effect. The particular manner in which labour markets, political actors, social institutions, and migrants’ networks intersect are shown to be distinctive features of the migration regime in this region. Describing bordering and debordering practices,from the island of Lampedusa to local communities in distant regions, this book brings fresh insights to urgent areas of debate within the field. It analyses why many irregular immigrants are socially accepted, such as women who perform domestic and care activities, whereas others are rejected and marginalized, as is often the case for asylum seekers, despite having permission to reside.Drawing together twenty years of research and addressing the current crisis, it will appeal to policy-makers, students and scholars of migration.

“Irregular migrants are reviled to placate the xenophobes, yet tolerated when they provide care for the elderly and children. Their movement is sustained by a large cast of actors –– traffickers and smugglers, as well as NGOs, employers and ethnic networks. In his compelling and subtle book, Maurizio Ambrosini penetrates the semi-legal world of irregular migration.” (Robin Cohen, Emeritus Professor, and Former Director of the International Migration Institute, University of Oxford, UK)“Focused on how ‘illegals’ reconstruct their social world, Maurizio Ambrosini’s insightful new book challenges the prevailing discourse on Europe’s borderland and main political and public preoccupation with irregular migration and how to control it. Providing much needed empirical evidence, Ambrosini showing how, despite their legal marginality and stigmatisation, irregular migrants introduce new and positive social and economic dynamics where they have settled in the ‘battleground’ of Italy.” (Roger Zetter Emeritus Professor and Former Director of the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, UK) “The challenges raised by irregular migration to Europe have been discussed numerous times. There are formidable puzzles: inclusive democracy versus exclusivist nationalism, human and social rights against exploitation, diversity as opposed to cultural homogeneity. But these tensions call for a clear and lucid synthesis. Here it is. With ‘Irregular Immigration in Southern Europe: Actors, Dynamics and Governance’ Maurizio Ambrosini combines rigorous scholarship with engaging analysis and high readability.” (Thomas Faist, Professor of Transitional and Development studies in the Department of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany)

Provides a timely contribution to our understanding of the current refugee crisis in Europe Sheds light on the fine line that separates legal and irregular migration Offers significant policy insights for a Europe that lacks a common approach to immigration Provides an illuminating case study for comparative research on migration regimes in the global North