Immigration enforcement and control policies in the eyes of irregular Ukrainians in the UK

Abstract

This article starts with defining the variants of irregular status and the paths through which a migrant may become irregular. We explore how immigration enforcement is perceived by Ukrainian irregular migrants in the UK. The result of the study indicates that immigration enforcement is perceived as omnipresent. At the same time many Ukrainian irregular migrants believe that as white Europeans they are at lower risk in terms of checks/raids compared to ‘dark skin’ migrants. Our research suggests that irregular Ukrainians were more likely to display stress at the beginning of their irregular position and became more resilient the longer they managed to stay in the UK. We conclude that the interviewees were generally considering – or had already developed – strategies in terms of their residence, work, and other areas of their lives which they believed would help prevent detection. It is based on qualitative interviews of irregular Ukrainian migrants in the UK: for the ESRC-funded project “Does immigration enforcement matters? Irregular immigrants and control policies in the UK” (2013–2017).