Seeking a Better Life: Human Welfare of Migrants in Irregular Situations in the United States and Europe

Abstract

Today, studies regarding social rights need to be reconsidered and extended in light of emerging themes and issues presented by new migration trends. The United States and Europe, the two destinations often chosen by migrants, have very different views and policies around social rights. One of the most pressing issues in immigration studies is which protections should be extended to irregular or undocumented immigrants. The United States, a destination for significant numbers of irregular migrants in the world, do not explicitly recognize many rights for undocumented immigrants, especially those social rights requiring public expenditures. On the contrary, in many European countries, undocumented immigrants are formally entitled to social rights merely because they have human rights. These two different views lead to opposite policies. In both contexts, social rights remain one of the most important ways to solve many problems of undocumented migrants. However, social rights need to be reconsidered as tools for development and participation of poor and marginalized people essential to the common good, not as mere entitlements or mere human rights. The ambition of this article is therefore to help understand this gap by comparing laws, integration politics, and policies from these two different macro areas of the world.

Keywords: irregular migration, united states, european union