ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of key data, concepts, and terminology relating to irregular migration and migrants, outlining principal areas of study and findings from different parts of the world. As such it also provides an introduction to some topics addressed in greater depth in other chapters. It explores paths to irregularity and shows that irregular migration is not a temporary phenomenon but a structural feature of many economies and societies. Irregular status is seen to be a continuum rather than a binary of ‘legal-illegal’. The chapter considers the limited impact of the international human rights standards for the protection of irregular migrants, the uneven geography of protection in national legal systems, and the social embeddedness nevertheless of irregular migrants in local communities. It reviews the challenges posed for governance at the national and local levels, recent enforcement trends, and the apparent paradox of the juxtaposition of policies of exclusion with a level of authorised inclusion in public services – a trend most apparent in the approaches of sub-state authorities.
