Protecting Irregular Migrants in Europe: Institutions, Interests and Policies

Project Information

PRIME

Grant agreement ID: 101095113

DOI

10.3030/101095113

Project closed

EC signature date 9 December 2022

Start date 1 April 2023

End date 31 March 2026

Funded under

• Culture, creativity and inclusive society

Total cost

€ 2 467 708,00

EU contribution

€ 2 467 708,00

Coordinated by

EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PRIME (Protecting Irregular Migrants in Europe: Institutions, Interests and Policies)

Reporting period: 2023-04-01 to 2024-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

European countries are characterised by great diversity in national legal, political, labour, and welfare institutions. We know from an extensive body of existing research that this institutional diversity has important consequences for the economic and social outcomes of citizens and migrants with a regular status across Europe. Yet, we know little about how these same institutions shape the conditions of, and politics about, one of the most vulnerable groups: migrants with an irregular status.

The EU-funded PRIME project studies how variations in national institutions (legal, political, welfare, and labour), and the interests with which they are associated, shape the rights and conditions of irregular migrants in law, policy and practice across EU Member States. PRIME conducts large-scale surveys, structured policy analysis and qualitative interviews with migrants, employers, policy actors, interest groups and voters in eight European countries.

Studying these effects of institutional variations empirically is not a purely academic exercise. Understanding why and how the conditions of irregular migrants vary across institutional contexts is critical for both public debates and policy-making. Understanding the role of national institutions matters for contextualised and, therefore, more effective national-level policymaking and also for transnational policies: common EU policies that take a one-size-fits-all approach and ignore important cross-country variations in national institutions will fail.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

PRIME is still at a relatively early stage. The key scientific activities so far include:

1) Development and publication of a theoretical framework paper (D1.1) that guides the integrated empirical research of PRIME:

'Institutional contexts of the conditions of irregular migrants in Europe: a theoretical analysis'
This paper provides a theoretical framework for an institutional approach to understanding the conditions of irregular migrants in Europe. Our starting point is that, in determining policy responses to irregular migration, European liberal democracies are conflicted between the goals of immigration control and fundamental rights protection for all people. These goals conflict at the level of both values and interests. Despite the urgency and high political salience of the issue in many European countries, however, there has been little analysis of how European governments manage this goal conflict in their policies vis-à-vis irregular migrants, of the national differences in responses, and of the consequences for migrants. This paper argues and explains why the particular nature of this goal conflict and how it is managed in government policy responses can be expected to vary across European countries with different institutional contexts, with important consequences for the conditions of irregular migrants. We first theorise the links between institutions and the conditions of irregular migrants, and then use this framework to discuss why and how the ‘settings’ of key national institutions – legal institutions, political institutions, labour market institutions, and welfare state institutions – can ‘weigh’ in by favouring different sides of the goal conflict and thereby shape host country policies and outcomes for irregular migrants.

2) Development of a common methodological framework and research instruments for surveys and interviews with migrants, employers, policy actors, and the public across eight European countries

3) Development of indicators and measures of the legal rights of irregular migrants (with a focus on selected labour and welfare rights) under national laws of all EU countries plus the UK

4) Launch of fieldwork in early 2024, expected to be completed in early 2025

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

PRIME is developing a novel comparative institutional approach to understanding the conditions of irregular migrants across Europe. Our theoretical framework paper (D1.1) is the first paper that systematically links national institutions (legal, political, labour and welfare) to the conditions of irregular migrants, identifying both direct and indirect (mediated) effects via host country immigration policies.

Blog Social Media Graphic

PI Martin Ruhs kicks off first PRIME consortium meeting

PRIME team in Poland gathers before the start of a policy roundtable meeting

Caitlin Procter shares approach and ethics on how to conduct qualitative interviews with IM

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Policy roundtable meeting set up

PRIME team in Austria gathers before the start of a policy roundtable meeting