Institutional contexts of the conditions of irregular migrants in Europe : a theoretical analysis

Abstract

This paper provides a theoretical framework for an institutional approach to understanding the conditions of irregular migrants in Europe. Our starting point is that, in determining policy responses to irregular migration, European liberal democracies are conflicted between the goals of immigration control and fundamental rights protection for all people. These goals conflict at the level of both values and interests. Despite the urgency and high political salience of the issue in many European countries, however, there has been little analysis of how European governments manage this goal conflict in their policies vis-à-vis irregular migrants, of the national differences in responses, and of the consequences for migrants. This paper argues and explains why the particular nature of this goal conflict and how it is managed in government policy responses can be expected to vary across European countries with different institutional contexts, with important consequences for the conditions of irregular migrants. We first theorise the links between institutions and the conditions of irregular migrants, and then use this framework to discuss why and how the ‘settings’ of key national institutions – legal institutions, political institutions, labour market institutions, and welfare state institutions – can ‘weigh’ in by favouring different sides of the goal conflict and thereby shape host country policies and outcomes for irregular migrants.