To browse Academia. The paper examines the challenges posed by irregular migration and informal labor in Europe, focusing on the intersection of civil society, migrant networks, and labor market dynamics. It highlights the complexities of migration patterns following the transformation of Eastern Europe, the impact of EU policies, and the specific situation in Turkey as a significant transit country. By addressing the rights of migrants within the context of economic globalization and social welfare systems, the paper aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the socio-economic implications of irregular migration in various European regions.
The flexible and cheap labour that European ''post-industrial'' economies are in need of is often facilitated by undeclared labour.
What lies behind this nexus between irregular migration and informal economy? To what extent can this nexus be attributed to the structural features of the so-called ''secondary'', as opposed to ''primary'', labour market? And how does migration policy correlate with this economic context and lead to the entrapment of migrants in irregularity? Finally, can this vicious cycle of interests and life-strategies be broken and what does the experience of the migrants indicate in this respect?
This paper addresses these questions via an exploration of the grounds upon which irregular migration and the shadow economy complement each other in southern Europe SE and central and Eastern Europe CEE two regions at different points in the migration cycle. In doing so, the dynamic character of the nexus between informal economy and irregular migration will come to the fore, and the abstract identity of the ''average'' undocumented migrant will be deconstructed.
Despite mass investments in advanced border controls, refugees and migrants keep arriving along southern European shores under increasingly desperate circumstances. Outside Italy, hardly a week has passed in summer without news of boat tragedies; in Greece, refugees have launched hunger strikes in crammed detention camps; and in Spain, migrants have clambered up border fences or drowned while trying to swim into the country's North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.
