Challenges and ambiguities of the policies for immigrants’ regularisation: the Portuguese case in context

Abstract

The idea that most immigrant receiving countries face a crisis of control has become pervasive since the 1990s, when neoliberal globalisation, as well as securitarian and nationalist policies, gained space. Due to the several contradictions and inefficiencies of the global circulation framework, most countries are exposed to uncontrolled migration, including the North and South European ones. The challenge is stronger when borders separate regions with uneven development levels and the economic cycle is expanding. When irregular migration occurs, the basic ex-post policy choices are limited to ignore the problem, enact deportation strategies or create mechanisms for regularisation.

In Southern European countries, irregular immigration became endemic. Until the mid-2000s, the most frequent policy approach adopted in these migration regimes was the enactment of extraordinary regularisation processes. Since then, some nations adopted an ongoing regularisation model. Using Portugal as a reference, we intend to examine how such processes were implemented and why they have been enacted. Because the features of the Portuguese case share elements with other countries, some comparative analysis is developed and positioned at the global European level, to evaluate the convergence or divergence hypothesis and the blurring of migration regimes’ boundaries.