Illegal immigration

Introduction. The issue

Illegal immigration is the passing of a person or group of persons across a country’s border with the
intention of remaining in the specific country for an undetermined period of time, in a way that violates
the country’s immigration laws and policies. An illegal immigrant can be either a person that has entered
the state through irregular migration, or a non-citizen that entered legally, but remained after the
passing of the number of days admitted for a visit or after the expiration of their visa.

Before digging deeper into illegal immigration, it’s important to take a look at the reasons why
international migration occurs and how those reasons change the profile of the immigrant, which varies
from the integrated new-citizen up to that of the illegal alien.

Immigration is linked to underlying features of global politics such as :

 inequalities between richer and poorer countries

 political repression or conflict

 Environmental issues can also be a factor for immigration, which in this case is -most of the
time- temporary until repairs have been made

Understanding the reasons why immigration occurs is needed in order to analyze how it’s various forms
(to seek refuge, to work, to study, to join family) affects European politics and policies, and thus
transforming the term immigrant into policy categories such as labor migrant, asylum seeker, family
migrant and international student.

We should take into account the difference between the “voluntary” economic migrant and the
“forced” refugee, as the latter seeks shelter on the basis of 1951 Geneva Convention on the rights of
stateless people.

Immigration, as long as it’s legal, has proven to bring lots of benefits to countries that embraced
newcomers as a strong working force by contributing to the economic growth and bringing cultural
diversity. It is proven that a multi-cultural working environment is much more prosperous since diversity
helps increase creativity and productivity and such, problem-solving becoming easier.

However, the main issue concerning international migration is that of the illegal immigrant, and at a
deeper level, that of the incapacity to integrate into a society and to contribute by paying taxes and
working legally, while taking full advantage of welfare to the detriment of the citizens.

By draining public funds, creating unfair competition for jobs with the least prepared workers and
thereby lowering wages and working conditions, and by imposing unwanted strains on services designed
to provide assistance to citizens of that country, illegal immigration causes harm to a country and its
legal residents.
How the citizens react to the arrival of newcomers is crucial to the further development of their status,
and regarding illegal aliens and people that are unwilling to integrate, they often engage a repulsive
behavior. Moreover, the safety of these people is put at stake with the possibility of ending up abused in
various ways because of the fear of reporting anything to the police. Since Romania isn’t the nicest apple
in the basket, Romanians often migrate to other countries and though lots of people do it legally, there
is still a significant number of Romanians living as illegal immigrants all over Europe. There have been
reported cases of people that left to work in farms or factories abroad and have been held as slaves by
their abusive bosses, thus human rights are being broken.

-Guess the reason why this public issue requires a more effective policy solution is obvious.

Intersection of democracy, rights and markets

EU immigration policy framework

EU countries, including Romania, have agreed to develop a common immigration policy to ensure that
legal migration to the UE is well managed, to improve integration measures for migrants and their
families and to enhance cooperation with migrants’ countries.

These goals are reflected in the Stockholm Programme, a roadmap for developing the EU’s migration
policy from 2009 to 2014. It aims to build a Europe of ,,responsibility, solidarity and partnership in
migration and asylum’’ with a ,,dynamic and comprehensive immigration policy”. The Stockholm
Programme encourages coherence between migration policy and other closely related EU policy areas,
such as development aid and relations with countries outside the EU.

To enable immigrants to feel part of our society we must treat them fairly, and ensure that they have
proper tools to participate fully in our societies. For this purpose the European Union has been
developing an increasing number of policy. Integration of immigrants is vital for social cohesion and
economic development. Integration is a continuous, two-way process based on mutual rights and
obligations on the part of both the immigrants and the host society.

What is common to all European countries is their adherence to human rights standards and shared
values such as equality, non-discrimination, solidarity, openness, participation and tolerance. The equal
participation of all members of society in the political process lies at the core of democracy.

We believe that the PROTECTIVE THEORY OF DEMOCRACY has an important role in the integration of
immigrants, because it believes government exist to protect the rights of individual citizens.
Governmental involvement in the lives of citizens should be focused on protecting material wealth and
maintaining a free market.

-Markets-
Being illegal is seldom the migrant’ s deliberate choice. When the opportunity to get authorization
occurs, most of those meeting the criteria are only too eager to file an application. In fact, the
advantages of illegal migration tend mostly to be on the side of the employer. An employer will benefit
from the illegal status of a migrant who is desperate for work and therefore prepared to accept poor
pay, usually below local norms. Hiring an illegal worker also brings the employer the advantage of paying
less in the way of welfare contributions and other non-wage costs. The welfare magnet of illegal
immigration is much stronger for the employer than for the worker, whose precarious situation and low
bargaining power makes him highly vulnerable to discriminatory practices in the form of longer hours
and non-payment of various bonuses, or even of wages. For many undocumented immigrants, the
underground economy is the only means of finding a job.

-Romanian Approach-

The integration phenomenon in Romania is quite recent, therefore the consequences of migration or
the experience of immigrants after their settlement in Romania, is a subject which only manifested itself
in 2004, following the first law on immigrant integration for persons receiving a form of protection in
Romania (refugees and people with subsidiary protection).

Regarding what we were mentioning earlier, here are some statistics to state that Romanians
themselves have been immigrants in different countries from all over Europe, since the fall of the
communist party:

 After 89 and until 2012 2,3 mil Romanians have left for Spain, Italy and Germany and managed
to send back home 42 milliard euros .

 Romania’s population reduced by more than 3,1 millions

 In 2016 Romania declared the 4th country in Europe in number of citizens living and working
abroad

-Markets-

Being illegal is seldom the migrant’ s deliberate choice. When the opportunity to get authorization
occurs, most of those meeting the criteria are only too eager to file an application. In fact, the
advantages of illegal migration tend mostly to be on the side of the employer. An employer will benefit
from the illegal status of a migrant who is desperate for work and therefore prepared to accept poor
pay, usually below local norms. Hiring an illegal worker also brings the employer the advantage of paying
less in the way of welfare contributions and other non-wage costs. The welfare magnet of illegal
immigration is much stronger for the employer than for the worker, whose precarious situation and low
bargaining power makes him highly vulnerable to discriminatory practices in the form of longer hours
and non-payment of various bonuses, or even of wages. For many undocumented immigrants, the
underground economy is the only means of finding a job.
Identify the actors or institutions that are relevant to the consideration of a
reasonable solution to the problem

various parties participating in the immigration process are:

 ministry of internal affairs= controls the existing illegal immigrants in the country, foreign affairs work to deals
with controlling possible future occurring of illegal migration, policy makers / legislatures make policies which
helps both foreign and internal affairs more active in discouraging illegal migration.

 NGO which in most cases support human right and tends to fight for immigrants to be accepted into a
country due to either human right or humanitarian acts

 ALDA -European Association for Local Democracy

 UNESCO

The answer is to deter further illegal immigration and to tackle the removal of the current illegal alien
population by:

• Improving the security of personal identification systems and require verification of legal work
status.

• Linking government databases on births, deaths, and immigration status.

• Tracking foreigners on temporary visas to assure they leave when required.

• Developing additional cooperative federal-local immigration enforcement programs

Some Romanian institutions (where you can get a Romanian Identity Card from) in charge of
immigration in Romania are:
 The General Inspectorate For Immigration http://igi.mai.gov.ro/en
 Romanian Office For Immigration
Romanian Cultural Institute http://icr.ro/ is an institution where any foreigner can take classes of
Romanian as a Foreign Language and/or Romanian culture
Institutions like this together with companies of the labor market could cooperate with the Government
in order to try to integrate at least 1% of illegal immigrants of the country (to issue and apply rules and
regulations regarding this problem, to use Media means – radio, TV, internet - and specific campaigns of
integration together with non-profit organizations).

Some possibilities:
 Offer international students the possibility of appying for citizenship in much „friendlier” way and
create associations that help with what papers they need
 Start more projects of integration. -voluntary associations and promote them better

 Educate people in the risks they take by doing so, but more importantly, educate them to develop a
civic spirit
 Promote examples of immigrants that made it BIG and integrated really good in a society, share
their stories
 Free language courses
 Make it easier for people : France offers citizenship much easier for people that arrive before the
age of 17; citizenship based on place of birth; multiple citizenships