Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2xdlg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-20T13:57:15.213Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Conceptualizing Semi-Legality in Migration Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Agnieszka Kubal
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

What is semi-legality, and why does it offer a viable alternative to the legality–illegality binary divide? Semi-legality, as a heuristic device, is useful to frame the various “in-between” statuses and not resorting to illegality every time ambiguities arise as this casts the net of potential fraud far too wide. It could be viewed as a multidimensional space where migrants' formal relationships with the state interact with their various forms of agency toward the law. As a sensitizing theoretical perspective, it helps to explain why many neoliberal regimes, which claim that law and order are the main features distinguishing them from others, actually engage in perpetuating the legally ambiguous modes of incorporation. Delineating the conditions of semi-legality, I use data from 360 qualitative interviews with migrants in four European countries. I discuss: (1) “incomplete” responses to regularization programs (amnesties) – de facto fulfilling the legalization conditions, yet facing barriers to formally (de jure) corroborate this; (2) balancing between the temporality of residence in various EU countries—under-staying in some and overstaying in others; and (3) the nexus with employment—where migrants' residence in a country is lawful, but their work exceeds the restrictions permitted by their visas.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 555 - 587
Copyright
© 2013 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Oliver Bakewell for his helpful comments on the earlier draft of this article. I would also like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their very useful, sharp and rigorous comments and suggestions. Financial support from NORFACE research program on Migration in Europe—Social, Economic, Cultural, and Policy Dynamics is acknowledged.

References

References

Abrego, Leisy J. (2008) “Legitimacy, Social Identity, and the Mobilization of Law: The Effects of Assembly Bill 540 on Undocumented Students in California,” 33 Law & Social Inquiry 709–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abrego, Leisy J. (2011) “Legal Consciousness of Undocumented Latinos: Fear and Stigma as Barriers to Claims-Making for First- and 1.5-Generation Immigrants,” 45 Law & Society Rev. 337–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Bridget (2008) “ ‘Illegal Immigrant’: Victim or Villain?,” COMPAS Working Paper Series. Available at: http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/publications/working-papers/wp-08-64 (accessed 16 May 2013).Google Scholar
Anderson, Bridget, & Rogaly, Ben (2005) Forced Labour and Migration. London: TUC.Google Scholar
Apap, Joanna (2002) “Shaping Europe's Migration Policy New Regimes for the Employment of Third Country Nationals: A Comparison of Strategies in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK,” 4 European J. of Migration & Law 309–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bacon, David (2008) Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Bakewell, Oliver, de Haas, H., & Kubal, A. (2012) “Migration Systems, Pioneer Migrants and the Role of Agency,” 11 J. of Critical Realism 413–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldwin-Edwards, Martin (2008) “Towards a Theory of Illegal Migration: Historical and Structural Components,” 29 Third World Q. 1449–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benton, Lauren (1994) “Beyond Legal Pluralism: Towards a New Approach to Law in the Informal Sector,” 3 Social and Legal Studies 223–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloch, Alice, Sigona, Nando, & Zetter, Roger (2011) “Migration Routes and Strategies of Young Undocumented Migrants in England: A Qualitative Perspective,” 34 Ethnic and Racial Studies 1286–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolderson, Helen (2011) “The Ethics of Welfare Provision for Migrants: A Case for Equal Treatment and the Repositioning of Welfare,” 40 J. of Social Policy 219–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bosniak, Linda (2008) The Citizen and the Alien: Dilemmas of Contemporary Membership. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers (1992) Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calavita, Kitty (2006) “Law, Citizenship and the Construction of (Some) Immigrant ‘Others’,” 30 Law & Social Inquiry 401–20.Google Scholar
Chauvin, Sebastien, & Garces-Mascarenas, B. (2012) “Beyond Informal Citizenship: The New Moral Economy of Migrant Illegality,” 6 International Political Sociology 241–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chavez, Leo (1998) Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.Google Scholar
Clayton, Gina (2010) Textbook on Immigration and Asylum Law, 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Cobb, Carrie (2005) “Not Quite Formal: Theorizing the Informal Labor Market Experiences of ‘Documented’ Immigrant Workers,” 1 McNair Online J. 48–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cole, David (2003) “Are Foreign Nationals Entitled to the Same Constitutional Rights as Citizens?,” 25 Thomas Jefferson Law Rev. 367–88.Google Scholar
Comaroff, Jean L., & Comaroff, John (2006) “Law and Disorder in the Postcolony: An Introduction,” in Comaroff, Jean, & Comaroff, John L., eds., Law and Disorder in the Postcolony. Chicago and London: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Couper, Kristina, & Santamaria, Ulysses (1984) “An Elusive Concept: The Changing Definition of Illegal Immigrant in the Practice of Immigration Control in the United Kingdom,” 18 International Migration Rev. 437–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coutin, Susan Bibler (2000) Legalizing Moves: Salvadoran Immigrants Struggle for US Residency. Ann Arbor: Univ. Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Coutin, Susan Bibler (2011) “The Rights of Noncitizens in the United States,” 7 Annual Rev. Law and Social Science 289–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coutin, Susan Bibler, & Chock, P. P. (1995) “ ‘Your Friend, the Illegal’: Definition and Paradox in Newspaper Accounts of U.S. Immigration Reform,” 2 Identities 123–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Currie, Samantha (2009) “Regular Migrants in the Irregular Workplace: Central and Eastern European Women in the UK after EU Enlargement,” in Currie, S., Stalford, H., & Velluti, S., eds., Gender and Migration in 21st Century Europe. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Cvajner, Martina, & Sciortino, G. (2010) “Theorizing Irregular Migration: The Control of Spatial Mobility in Differentiated Societies,” 13 European J. of Social Theory 389–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dauvergne, Catherine (2008) Making People Illegal: What Globalization Means for Migration and Law. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Certeau, Michael (1984) The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
De Genova, Nicholas (2002) “Migrant “Illegality” and Deportability in Everyday Life,” 31 Annual Rev. of Anthropology 419–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Genova, Nicholas (2004) “The Legal Production of Mexican/Migrant Illegality,” 2 Latino Studies 60–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Genova, Nicholas, & Peutz, Natalie (2010) The Deportation Regime. Durham: Duke Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Donato, Katharine M., & Armenta, Amada (2011) “What Do We Know About Undocumented Migration?,” 37 Annual Rev. of Sociology 529–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Düvell, Franck (2008) “Clandestine Migration in Europe,” 47 Social Science Information 479–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engbersen, Godfried, E. Snell, et al. (2011) Destination Netherlands: The Evolution of Migration from Six Origin Countries to the Netherlands. Rotterdam: Erasmus University. Accessed at: http://www.eur.nl/fsw/research/cimic/research/migration/.Google Scholar
Espenshade, Thomas J. (1995) “Unauthorized Immigration to the United States,” 21 Annual Rev. of Sociology 195–216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ewick, Patricia, & Silbey, S. (1998) The Common Place of Law: Stories of Popular Legal Consciousness. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fassin, Didier (2005) “Compassion and Repression. The Moral Economy of Immigration Policies in France,” 20 Cultural Anthropology 362–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fonseca, Lucinda (2000) “Portugal in the International Migration System at the End of the 20th Century: Challenge and Change,” Paper presented by the Human Geography Research Unit of the CEG to the IGU Regional Conference - The Hague, CEG, EPRU, n°52, Lisbon.Google Scholar
Fonseca, Lucinda (2001) “The Geography of Recent Immigration to Portugal,” in King, R., de Mas, P., & Beck, J. M., eds., Geography, Environment and Development in the Mediterranean. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press.Google Scholar
Fonseca, Lucinda, ed. (2004) New Waves: Migration from Eastern to Southern Europe. Lisboa: Fundação Luso-Americana.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michael (1992) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Galligan, Dennis (2007) Law in Modern Society. Oxford: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Garth, B., & Sarat, A. (1998) How Does Law Matter? Evanston: Northwestern Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Getrich, Christina M. (2008) “Negotiating Boundaries of Social Belonging: Second-Generation Mexican Youth and the Immigrant Rights Protests of 2006,” 52 American Behavioral Scientist 533–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gleeson, Shannon (2009) “From Rights to Claims: The Role of Civil Society in Making Rights Real for Vulnerable Workers,” 43 Law & Society Rev. 669–700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gleeson, Shannon (2010) “Labor Rights for All? The Role of Undocumented Immigrant Status for Worker Claims Making,” 35 Law & Social Inquiry 561–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldring, Luin, Berinstein, C., et al. (2009) “Institutionalizing Precarious Migratory Status in Canada,” 13 Citizenship Studies 239–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldring, Luin, & Landolt, P. (2011) “Caught in the Work–Citizenship Matrix: The Lasting Effects of Precarious Legal Status on Work for Toronto Immigrants,” 8 Globalizations 325–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gonzales, Roberto G. (2011) “Learning to Be Illegal: Undocumented Youth and Shifting Legal Contexts in the Transition to Adulthood,” 76 American Sociological Rev. 602–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gonzales, Roberto G. (2008) “Left out but Not Shut down: Political Activism and the Undocumented Latino Student Movement,” 3 Northwest J. Law Social Policy 219–239.Google Scholar
Guild, Elspeth (2004) “Who Is An Irregular Migrant?” in Bogusz, B., ed., Irregular Migration and Human Rights: Theoretical, European, and International Perspectives. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.Google Scholar
Guild, Elspeth (2009) Security and Migration in the 21st Century. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Hagan, Jacqueline M. (1994) Deciding to Be Legal: A Maya Community in Houston. Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Hagan, Jacqueline M. (1998) “Social Networks, Gender and Immigrant Settlement: Resource and Constraint,” 63 American Sociological Rev. 55–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagan, Jacqueline M., Castro, B., et al. (2010) “The Effects of U.S. Deportation Policies on Immigrant Families and Communities: Cross-Border Perspectives,” 28 North Carolina Law Rev. 1799–824.Google Scholar
Hagan, Jacqueline, Eschbach, K., et al. (2008) “U.S. Deportation Policy, Family Separation, and Circular Migration,” 42 International Migration Rev. 64–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, Xin (2005) “Why Do They Not Comply with the Law? Illegality and Semi-Legality among Rural-Urban Migrant Entrepreneurs in Beijing,” 39 Law & Society Rev. 527–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollifield, James F., Hunt, Valerie F., et al. (2008) “The Liberal Paradox: Immigrants, Markets and Rights in the United States,” 61 SMU Law Rev. 67–98.Google Scholar
Horst, Cindy, Carling, J., & Ezzati, R. (2010) “Immigration to Norway from Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, India, Morocco and Ukraine,” PRIO Paper. Oslo: PRIO.Google Scholar
Joppke, Christian (1998) “Why Liberal States Accept Unwanted Immigration,” 50 World Politics 266–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jordan, Bill, & Düvell, F (2002) Irregular Migration. London: Edward Elgar.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kubal, Agnieszka (2009) “Why Semi-Legal? Polish Post-2004 EU Enlargement Migrants in the United Kingdom,” 32 J. of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law 148–64.Google Scholar
Kubal, Agnieszka (2012) Socio-Legal Integration. Polish Post-2004 EU Enlargement Migrants in the United Kingdom. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
LeVoy, M., & Verbruggen, N. (2005) Ten Ways to Protect Undocumented Migrant Workers. Brussels: PICUM.Google Scholar
Lindahl, Hans (2010) “A-Legality: Postnationalism and the Question of Legal Boundaries,” 73 Modern Law Rev. 30–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marrow, H. (2009) “Immigrant Bureucratic Incorporation: The Dual Roles of Professional Missions and Government Policies,” 74 American Sociological Rev. 756–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marrow, Helen (2012) “The Power of Local Autonomy: Expanding Health Care to Unauthorized Immigrants in San Francisco,” 35 Ethnic and Racial Studies 72–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maurer, Bill (2004) “The Cultural Power of Law: Conjunctive Readings,” 38 Law & Society Rev. 843–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McIllwaine, Cathy, ed. (2011) Cross-Border Migration Among Latin Americans. European Perspectives and Beyond. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menjívar, Cecilia (2000) Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Menjívar, Cecilia (2006) “Liminal Legality: Salvadoran and Guatemalan Immigrants' Lives in the United States,” 111 American J. of Sociology 999–1037.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menjívar, Cecilia (2011) “The Power of the Law: Central Americans' Legality and Everyday Life in Phoenix, Arizona,” 9 Latino Studies 377–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mezey, Naomi (2001) “Out of the Ordinary: Law, Power, Culture, and the Commonplace,” 26 Law & Social Inquiry 145–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Sally Falk (1973) “Law and Social Change: The Semi-Autonomous Social Field as an Appropriate Subject of Study,” 7 Law & Society Rev. 719–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, L. (2002) Managing Migration Civic Stratification and Migrants Rights. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Motomura, Hiroshi (2010) “The Rights of Others: Legal Claims and Immigration outside the Law,” 59 Duke Law J. 1723–86.Google Scholar
Ngai, Mai (2004) Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton: PUP.Google Scholar
Pastore, Ferruccio (2004) Che fare di chi non dovrebbe essere qui? La gestione della presenza straniera irregolare in Europa, tra strategie nazionali e misure comuni. sommersi e i sanati. Le regolarizzazioni degli immigrati in Italia. Colombo, A., & Sciortino, G. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Portes, Alejandro (1978) “Toward a Structural Analysis of Illegal (Undocumented) Immigration,” 12 International Migration Rev. 469–84.Google Scholar
Portes, Alejandro (2007) “Migration, Development, and Segmented Assimilation: A Conceptual Review of the Evidence,” 610 The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 98–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Provine, Doris M., & Varsanyi, Monica W. (2012) “Scaled Down: Perspectives on State and Local Creation and Enforcement of Immigration Law. Introduction to the Special Issue of Law & Policy,” 34 Law & Policy 105–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rigo, Erica (2011) “Citizens despite Borders: Challenges to the Territorial Order of Europe,” in Squire, Vicky, ed., The Contested Politics of Mobility: Borderzones and Irregularity. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, Nestor, & Hagan, Jacqueline M. (2004) “Fractured Families and Communities: Effects of Immigration Reform in Texas, Mexico, and El Salvador,” 2 Latino Studies 328–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruhs, Martin, & Anderson, B. (2006) “The Origins and Functions of Illegality in Migrant Labour Markets: An Analysis of Migrants, Employers and the State in the UK,” COMPAS Working Paper, WP-06-30a.Google Scholar
Ruhs, Martin, & Anderson, B. (2010a) “Semi-Compliance and Illegality in Migrant Labour Markets: An Analysis of Migrants, Employers and the State in the UK,” 16 Population, Space and Place 195–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruhs, Martin, & Anderson, B., eds. (2010b) Who Needs Migrant Workers? Labour Shortages, Immigration and Public Policy. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, Bernard (2006) “The Evolving Legal Regime on Unauthorized Work by Migrants in Britain,” 27 Comparative Labor Law and Policy J. 43–5.Google Scholar
Rytter, Mikkel (2012) “Semi-Legal Family Life: Pakistani Couples in the Borderlands of Denmark and Sweden,” 12 Global Networks 91–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sadiq, Kamal (2008) Paper Citizens: How Illegal Immigrants Acquire Citizenship in Developing Countries. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salcido, Olivia, & Menjivar, Cecilia (2012) “Gendered Paths to Legal Citizenship: The Case of Latin-American Immigrants in Phoenix, Arizona,” 46 Law & Society Rev. 335–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarat, Austin (1990) “ ‘The Law Is All Over’: Power, Resistance and the Legal Consciousness of the Welfare Poor,” 2 Yale J. of Law and Humanities 343–80.Google Scholar
Schuck, Peter (1998) Citizens, Strangers and in-Betweens. Oxford: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Silbey, Susan (2010) “Legal Culture and Cultures of Legality,” in Hall, John R., Grindstaff, Laura, & Lo, Ming-Cheng, eds., Handbook of Cultural Sociology. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tom, Aileen (2006) “How Stricter Dutch Immigration Policies Are Contributing to Rising Islamic Fundamentalism in the Netherlands and Europe,” 5 Washington University Global Studies Law Rev. 451–68.Google Scholar
Triandafyllidou, Anna, ed. (2010) Irregular Migration in Europe Myths and Realities. Fanham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Van Meeteren, Masja, Engbersen, G., & van San, M. (2009) “Striving for a Better Position. Aspirations and the Role of Cultural, Economic and Social Capital for Irregular Migrants in Belgium,” 43 International Migration Rev. 881–907.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welch, Michael (2003) “Ironies of Social Control and the Criminalization of Immigrants,” 39 Crime, Law and Social Change 319–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willen, Sarah (2007) “Exploring ‘Illegal’ and ‘Irregular’ Migrants' Lived Experiences of Law and State Power,” 45 International Migration 2–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wong, Carolyn (2006) Lobbying for Inclusion: Rights Politics and the Making of Immigration Policy. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Yamamoto, Ryoko (2007) “Crossing Boundaries: Legality and the Power of the State in Unauthorized Migration,” 1 Sociology Compass 95–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yngvesson, Barbara, & Coutin, S. B. (2006) “Backed by Papers: Undoing Persons, Histories, and Return,” 33 American Ethnologist 177–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Cases Cited

Metock [2008] Case C-127/08, Blaise Baheten Metock and Others v. Minister for Justice, Equality and Law. European Court of Justice.Google Scholar
Zalewska [2008] Zalewska v. Department for Social Development, UKHL 67.Google Scholar
Zambrano [2011] Case C-34/09, Gerardo Ruiz Zambrano v. Office national de l'emploi (ONEm), European Court of Justice.Google Scholar