Producing «illegals»:immigration policies in Malaysia

Abstract

Despite increasing measures to control and regulate migration flows, irregular migration has grown in the last few years in Spain, Malaysia and the United States. This increase in irregular immigration has mainly been explained in relation to socio-economic factors. However, while these factors explain the presence of migration flows towards these countries, they do not succeed in explaining why an importantpart of these flows takes place on a non-regularbasis. This can only be considered by taking intoaccount the State and its immigration policies.Starting out from this statement, this research paperanalyses to what extent, how and why theimmigration policies of Spain, Malaysia and the United States produce «illegals». This means notonly analysing how and why immigration policiescontribute to the increase in the number of irregularimmigrants, but also how and why, by denying their rights and often their existence, they create thefigure of the «illegal immigrant». As this research note demonstrates for the Malaysian case, irregularimmigration is not despite immigration policies butbecause of them.