No Easy Options Irregular Immigration in the UK
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REPORT No Easy Options Irregular immigration in the UK Tim Finch with Myriam Cherti April 2011 © ippr 2011 Institute for Public Policy Research Challenging ideas – Changing policy About ippr The Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) is the UK’s leading progressive think tank, producing cutting-edge research and innovative policy ideas for a just, democratic and sustainable world. Since 1988, we have been at the forefront of progressive debate and policymaking in the UK. Through our independent research and analysis we define new agendas for change and provide practical solutions to challenges across the full range of public policy issues. With offices in both London and Newcastle, we ensure our outlook is as broad-based as possible, while our international work extends our partnerships and influence beyond the UK, giving us a truly world-class reputation for high-quality research. ippr, 4th Floor, 13–14 Buckingham Street, London WC2N 6DF +44 (0)20 7470 6100 • [email protected] • www.ippr.org Registered charity no. 800065 This paper was first published in April 2011. © 2011 The contents and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors only. About the authors Tim Finch is Director of Communications and formerly Head of Migration at ippr. His publications for ippr include Immigration under Labour (joint editor with David Goodhart, 2010), Global Brit: Making the most of the British diaspora (with Holly Andrew and Maria Latorre, 2010) and Shall We Stay or Shall We Go?: Re-migration trends among Britain’s immigrants (with Maria Latorre, Naomi Pollard and Jill Rutter, 2009). Tim is a former BBC journalist and Director of Communications for the Refugee Council. Myriam Cherti is a senior research fellow at ippr. She authored Madrassas in the British media for ippr (with Alex Glennie and Laura Bradley, 2011) and other publications include British-Moroccans: Citizenship in Action (Runnymede Trust Community Studies, 2009) and Paradoxes of Social Capital: a Multi-Generational Study of Moroccans in London (Amsterdam University Press, 2008). Prior to joining ippr, Myriam was a project coordinator at the Migrant and Refugee Communities Forum where she led on an oral history project on the Moroccan diaspora in the UK. She also taught at the University of Sussex. Addenda On 27 April 2011, the following correction was made: p52: Estimated healthcare costs for 618,000 irregulars at £200 per person is £123 million, not £1.2 billion Acknowledgments A large of number of people were involved in the Irregular Immigration project during 2009 and 2010. Field researchers First, we would like to thank the field researchers who interviewed irregular immigrants in the UK and in other countries, and who carried out the surveys. In the UK: • Chen Chen Lee and Hsiao Hung Pai (Chinese interviews) • Hermione Harris (Nigerian and Ghanaian interviews) • Ilyas Chatta (Hindi and Punjabi interviews) • Oleg Pasichnyi (Russian and Ukrainians interviews) • Tess Lanning and Maria Latorre (Latin American interviews) • Holly Andrew (Zimbabwean interviews) Overseas: • Rehan Zahid (interviews in Pakistan) • Linnet Taylor (interviews in Ghana) • Darshan Vigneswaran (interviews in South Africa) • Deon Edwards-Kerr (interviews in Jamaica) • Dao The Son (interviews in Vietnam) Project team Andy Hull and Jill Rutter at ippr were, at different times, key players in coordinating the research and contributed significantly to discussions around recommendations and to earlier drafts of this report. Thanks also to former ippr colleagues Holly Andrew and Ruth Sheldon, both of whom worked on analysing the primary research, along with Alex Glennie, a current ippr research fellow. ippr research fellow Glenn Gottfried helped with the quantitative analysis. Current and former ippr colleagues Nick Pearce, Kate Stanley, Sarah Mulley, Laura Chappell and Alice Sachrajda gave valuable advice and suggestions, which have strengthened the final report, as did Will Somerville of the Migration Policy Institute. Anna Brown edited the final report. Other acknowledgments The research was funded by the Returns and Reintegration Fund administered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The FCO Migration Directorate helped the project in various ways. We also had help from people at the UK Border Agency. An advisory board helped us with framing the research and reviewing its findings. We would like to thank the members – Christine Bacon, Alice Bloch, Gabriel Boeing, Jonathan Cox, Don Flynn, Vaughan Jones, Jabez Lam, Sonia McKay, Pindurai Makufa and Dick Williams. We should stress that although advisory board members lent their experience and expertise, the findings and recommendations in this report are very much those of the authors alone. Finally, we would like to thank the key informant interviewees (who we interviewed on the basis that they would remain anonymous) who shared their considerable expertise and insight on this complex subject. Most of all, we would like to thank the irregular immigrants who agreed to be interviewed. Their situation is a very difficult one and for their sakes above all we hope this report has done justice to the issue. ippr | No Easy Options: Irregular immigration in the UK Report Contents Executive summary ..........................................................................................................................3 Taking action ................................................................................................................................3 Key issues .....................................................................................................................................6 About the research .......................................................................................................................8 Principal findings ..........................................................................................................................9 Policy recommendations .............................................................................................................3 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................17 Part One: An overview of irregular immigration in the UK ...........................................................20 Summary.....................................................................................................................................20 Chapter 1: Numbers and categories ...............................................................................................23 . The big number ....................................................................................................................23 .2 National groups ....................................................................................................................24 .3 Categories .............................................................................................................................24 Chapter 2: Drivers and motivations ...............................................................................................30 2. Economic ..............................................................................................................................30 2.2 Smuggling and trafficking ....................................................................................................33 2.3 Persecution, conflict and politics ..........................................................................................34 2.4 Family, community and national ...........................................................................................34 2.5 Personal ................................................................................................................................35 2.6 ‘Lifestyle’ ..............................................................................................................................37 2.7 Why the UK? ........................................................................................................................38 Chapter 3: Survival strategies and impacts ....................................................................................40 Survival strategies 3.1 Migrant networks and support organisations ........................................................................40 3.2 Work .....................................................................................................................................43 3.3 Securing papers ....................................................................................................................46 3.4 Accommodation ....................................................................................................................47 3.5 Health and well-being ..........................................................................................................48 Impacts 3.6 Economic impacts .................................................................................................................50 3.7 Social impacts .......................................................................................................................53 3.8 Political impact .....................................................................................................................54 Special note: Irregular immigration and human rights .................................................................56 Part Two: Reducing irregular immigration .....................................................................................59