ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an estimation of the size of irregular migrant population in Greece while critically exploring the data and other sources upon which such an experiment is based. The socioeconomic profiling of the irregular migrant comes next and it seeks to show how irregular migration is constructed. As it becomes clear, the pathways into irregularity result from a combination of migrants' strategic mindsets with the malfunctioning or narrow avenues for legal entry in the host country, as well as unrealistic immigration laws with regard to their stay. The public discourses on irregular migration to be analyzed last show how society filters this phenomenon and why the policy framework around migration has developed as it has. The chapter maps the main challenges ahead with regard to irregular migration in Greece and the EU. The irregular migration is an issue that extends over the border control regime of the host country to its broader spheres of migration and economic policy.
