Irregular Migrants: Policy, Politics, Motives and Everyday Lives

A new era of international migration has been accompanied by increasingly restrictive immigration controls to manage migration to more developed countries. The consequence has been fewer routes to enter and/or stay in countries in a regularised way and as a result, an increase in the numbers of undocumented migrants. In this situation undocumented migrants, especially in relation to immigration controls and internal security have come to occupy an important role on the policy agenda of many nation states. The control and regulation of undocumented migrants has become an increasingly politicised issue.

This edited collection brings together cutting edge scholarly research papers to explore undocumented migration at the international, national and individual levels. Starting with an overview of the literature on undocumented migration this book explores some of the key areas of research and policy in this area. This includes the making of undocumented migrants, the journey and processes, experiences of being undocumented at the individual level, collective action and return.

This fascinating book explores the many facets of undocumented migration and of being an undocumented migrant in different geographical contexts that include Europe, Southern Africa, Central America and North America.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.