ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates the fundamental tension between crimmigration and international refugee law, describing the extensive legal restrictions on the criminalization, detention and deportation of asylum-seekers. These restrictions compel the nation-state to envision a crimmigration regime focused on daily supervision rather than on practices such as removal, detention to facilitate deportation and prosecution of illegal entry, which are widely considered main components of crimmigration. The chapter provides a comparative analysis, demonstrating that most states in the ‘Western’ world restrict and supervise asylum-seekers via criminal justice mechanisms that are similar to those that govern migrants who are not protected under international law. However, crimmigration under international protection differs from ‘conventional’ crimmigration by prioritizing alternatives to detention and forms of daily control and supervision premised on residence in the community.
