ABSTRACT
In the 1990s, a large-scale Dutch research programme entitled ‘The Unknown City’ highlighted the existence of irregular immigrants in the Netherlands’ large cities (Engbersen 1996; Burgers & Engbersen 1996). The study also revealed the existence of informal institutions crucial to the residence opportunities and life chances of irregular immigrants. Significant informal institutions include the informal economy, the informal housing market, the informal marriage market and crime (see also Engbersen, Van San & Leerkes 2006; Leerkes, Engbersen & Van San 2007). In this research project, Simmel’s concept of ‘secret societies’ was used to emphasise that these informal institutions are products of the manifest society, and that these secret societies are characterised by direct links to public worlds or, as Simmel (1950: 330) states: ‘The secret society offers […] the possibility of a second world alongside the manifest world. And the latter is decisively influenced by the former.’ The link between secret and public worlds indicates that the underworld metaphor frequently used in journalistic articles and academic studies on irregular migration is not very accurate. The unknown cities of irregular immigrants also feature numerous actors from the overworld: legal compatriots, employers, clergymen, lawyers and public service workers, including police officers and mayors who turn a blind eye to or assist irregular immigrants.
