Irregularization Pathways: Examining Trajectories from Legal to Illegal Status for Immigrants in France

Julia Descamps , Ined

In the context of increasingly restrictive and suspicious migration policies, this communication examines the pathways through which migrants transition from legal to illegal status due to the loss and/or withdrawal of their residence permit. Adopting a longitudinal and heterogeneous approach to irregular status, I explore the diversity of these irregularization pathways and the policy, family and individual factors that shape them. Using French administrative data, I conduct descriptive statistical analysis on 50,000 migrants who received a legal residence document in France between 2000 and 2021. I examine different forms of administrative precariousness, such as having a short-term document, being without a valid document, or receiving an expulsion order. For a subsample of migrants who have been irregularized for at least one month, I conduct a sequence analysis over the first six years in France. I show that, although irregularization is a common experience, even among long-term regular migrants, certain forms of administrative precariousness can be cumulative: the longer migrants remain in a state of “liminal legality”, the greater the likelihood of their becoming irregularized. I also point out that inequalities in legal migration opportunities (i.e. entering legally or illegally) have repercussions even after a first legal document has been obtained. Finally, I examine inequalities in irregularization trajectories according to family configuration, gender, and origin.

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 Presented in Session 46. Migrant Populations, Legal Trajectories and Civic Stratification