ABSTRACT
Irregular immigration into the country under the conditions of a state with hermetically closed and protected borders was hardly imaginable before 1989. Since the collapse of communism in that year, the Slovak Republic has undergone many deep changes, notably in economic, social, political, cultural, demographic and other areas, including the domain of international migration. Undocumented migration patterns in the Slovak Republic have gradually been changing in several dimensions recently. This is well expressed in the fact that the migration of persons staying unlawfully in the country is already more significant from a quantitative viewpoint than the migration of persons crossing the borders illegally. Undocumented migration problems are practically overlooked by most of the main actors as well as society as whole politicians, state institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGO), self-government bodies, churches, immigrant associations, the academic community, the media and common people. Since the accession of the Slovak Republic to the European Union, trends in undocumented migration have been substantially changing.
