Regularisation of unauthorised immigrants in Italy and Spain: determinants and effects

Abstract

In Southern European countries, the regularisations of irregular migrants have very frequently been used as ex post control policy measures. They have often been blamed by a large number of scholars for their incapacity to stop the reproduction of irregular migration systems. Nevertheless, the debate on the effectiveness of regularisation programmes still demonstrates a substantial contradiction between the criticism of regularisations and the lack of empirical evidence in favour of or against the execution of such processes. The aim of the present article is to analyze the effects of regularisations in Italy and Spain as the two countries that have regularised the largest number of migrants in Europe. The final goal of the article is not only to assess the efficiency of regularisations but also to discuss the future of such measures in the Mediterranean migration regimes.

Keywords

• irregular migration
• regularisation processes
• informal economy
• Spain
• Italy.