Responses to long-term irregularly staying migrants: practices and challenges in EU Member States and Norway

Authors European Migration Network (EMN)
Description
This study aims to provide an overview of existing policies and practices in the EU Member States and Norway towards third-country nationals in a prolonged situation of irregular stay. The overall focus is on those third-country nationals subject to a return decision but whose return was not enforced or was postponed, and those without a return decision who are unknown to the authorities. The study explores the responses and approaches by central and local authorities to end those situations and mitigate the social consequences for the third-country nationals affected. It examines access by these groups to mainstream services. The status of third-country nationals who cannot be returned due to legal or practical obstacles varies within and across the Member States as it does not rely on a harmonisation at EU level and usually depends on individual circumstances. Services provided to long-term irregular migrants with some form of status/authorisation are limited compared to those provided to regular migrants, often discretionary, and difficult to access, especially concerning social protection benefits and employment. Services available to undetected migrants with no authorisation to stay are even more limited and essentially rely on the application of standards set out in international human rights law. The main service providers for long-term irregular migrants are national authorities and municipalities, with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) providing complementary and/or autonomous services. In order to end irregular stay in general, not only focusing on long-term specifically, (voluntary) return is prioritised in the Member States, whereas regularisation is only marginally addressed in policy. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the situation of migrants who cannot be returned or who remain undetected by the authorities, due to the urgency in ensuring universal access to medical care. In a limited number of cases, labour market shortages in essential sectors due to border closures led to regularisation of workers with skills in shortage areas.
Year 2021

Taxonomy Associations

Migration processes
Migration governance
Cross-cutting topics in migration research
Methods
Geographies
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