Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States and Europe: The Use of Legalization/ Regularization as a Policy Tool

Legalization of unauthorized immigrants in the United States and Europe (“regularizations” in the European context) have been used repeatedly for broad and discrete groups. These programs seek to balance the goal of bringing unauthorized immigrants into the mainstream of society for economic and humanitarian reasons with the public and political pressures to stem illegal migration in the long term. Here is a look from Migration Information Source at the differences between these sometimes contentious policy tools and their use, both historically and in recent years.

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