Introduction to the Special Issue: Implementing Human Rights: Civil Society and Migration Policies

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Notes

¹We use the terms irregular (im)migration and irregular (im)migrant(s). Although the term irregular is conceptually vague because it refers to immigrants with a weak, or lacking residence, status, it is generally considered preferable to the term illegal which is seen as discriminatory or even criminalizing (Koser, 2005; Schrover, Van der Leun, Lucassen, & Quispel, 2008; Triandafyllidou, 2009). Immigrants in irregular condition is more precise, but we will use irregular immigrants for brevity.

²The boundaries between “natives” and “immigrants” are obviously blurred. More and more mixed or uncertain cases occur: naturalized immigrants, second generations, expatriates coming from developed countries, European Union citizens in other countries of European Union. For brevity, here we mean, for “natives,” individuals belonging to the majority group, and for “immigrants,” foreigner residents who do not enjoy citizens’ rights. Native or mainstream organizations are the organizations historically established in receiving societies, founded by native citizens or local actors.