Undocumented Immigrants

Europe

Although the democratic nations of Western Europe have long experienced undocumented immigrants in their midst, the situation evolved into a social problem in recent decades with the fall of communism to the east and quality-of-life issues resulting from burgeoning populations to the south. With the collapse of an artificial economic interdependence system under communism, the resulting factory shutdowns, lost jobs, and the sudden opportunity to cross borders no longer guarded to prevent emigration, tens of thousands sought a better life without bothering to obtain any formal approval to do so.

England, France, and Germany attracted many of these clandestine migrants. Italy, though, became the main conduit into the European Union. Italy still attracts more illegal immigration than other European countries because its long coastline and close proximity to other countries make it especially vulnerable. The most popular clandestine sea route for Africans is from Libya or Tunisia to the Italian island of Lampedusa (closer to Africa than to Italy) or to Sicily. A second underground gateway is a 60-mile speedboat ride by smugglers from Albania across the Adriatic Sea. Albanians, Afghans, Kurds, Turks, and Chinese are the most frequent arrivals this way. A third route is by truck over the Slovenian border into Milan.

Because of Italy's limit of 20,000 to 30,000 legal immigrants per year and an estimated 2 million others waiting for transit to enter, the “back door” of illegal entry has become the only viable choice for many. About 2.5 million (4.3 percent) of Italy's 58 million people in 2007 were foreign born, about half of them beneficiaries of four amnesties between 1986 and 1998. Rather than solving the problem, however, these amnesties attracted even more illegal migrants. Each year hundreds drown in unsafe, overcrowded boats in attempts to reach Italy.

United States

Nativist reaction against the entry of unprocessed immigrants is practically as old as the United States itself. Late 18th-century Americans bristled at English ships approaching U.S. shores and dumping Irish rebels into the water to swim ashore. Late 19th-century Americans, who had barred Chinese laborers with passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, resented their illegal entry through the unguarded northern border with British Columbia. Late 20th-century Americans sought to stop the flow of [Page 973]undocumented immigrants from Mexico, still a problem in the 21st century.

...