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This paper examines the contradiction at the heart of Italian and Spanish immigration policies between the calls for integration on the one hand, and the marginalization associated with temporary and contingent immigration status on the other. I argue that this tension is structural and reflects an underlying contradiction in the political economy of these post-Fordist societies. In the second half of this paper, I examine this same tension in U.S. immigration policy, and explore the ways the current proposals for reform would bring U.S. immigration policy closer to that of Spain and Italy. I note that while the tension between immigrant marginalization and integration has always characterized U.S. policy, the contradiction has intensified as immigrants are an increasingly visible component of the U.S. workforce, complicating attempts at meaningful reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is threefold: 1) to compare the impact of the Normalisation of 2005 with the new Settlement Programme established in 2006; 2) to analyse the trajectories of applicants from both programmes after their regularisation; 3) to examine the regularisation of applicants who were unable to qualify in their first attempt via the Normalisation or, subsequently, through the Settlement Programme. Two approaches have been implemented: one cross-sectional, to analyse the volume and intensity of entry, and the other longitudinal, to monitor the trajectories of applicants from both programmes. Specific data from 2005 to 2010 from the Government Representation Office in the Province of Barcelona have been used. Whilst the results shed some optimism on both programmes, they also demonstrate the difficulty of regularisation in times of economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increasing measures to control and regulate migration flows, irregular migration has grown in the last few years in Spain, Malaysia and the United States. This increase in irregular immigration has mainly been explained in relation to socio-economic factors. However, while these factors explain the presence of migration flows towards these countries, they do not succeed in explaining why an important part of these flows takes place on a non-regular basis. This can only be considered by taking into account the State and its immigration policies. Starting out from this statement, this research paper analyses to what extent, how and why the immigration policies of Spain, Malaysia and the United States produce «illegals«. This means not only analysing how and why immigration policies contribute to the increase in the number of irregular immigrants, but also how and why, by denying their rights and often their existence, they create the figure of the «illegal immigrant». As this research note demonstrates for the Malaysian case, irregular immigration is not despite immigration policies but because of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union is undergoing important transformations on both the normative and the identity level. The «Others» in Europe are no longer merely those who do not hold citizenship of one of the member states of the Union. In the new European immigration context, «Otherness» as defined on a legal basis —the foreigner— has been complemented by a culturally and an ethnically coloured definition. This paper analyses the construction of categories and identity classifications underlying new forms of inclusion and exclusion that are to be found in the context of the emergence of Europe as a legal, political and cultural entity. It will focus more specifically on the formation of particular collective identities which are targets of stigmatization and derogation as a result of the process of «Europeanization» and the establishing of an «imagined European identity». In a context characterized by the increasing stress placed on the juridical dimension of social relations together with a rise in affirmative identities, this project attempts to analyse the processes of categorization and derogation of individuals and groups on the basis of «culture» or «ethnicity», and their consequences for both minority groups (mobilization, submission, retreat, etc.) and majority groups (the fight against discrimination, normative and cultural impositions, intercultural practices, etc.). An examination of the hypothesis according to which the definition of collective derogated identities —the «European outsiders»— is undergoing a transition from legal criteria (nationality) towards «cultural/ethnic» criteria («Blacks», «Roms», etc.) or even religious criteria («Muslims») is particularly important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]