REGINE Regularisations in Europe Final Report - European ...

etween expediency and obligations can also be considered as too narrow, as it inadequately reflects
the entitlements of residence to long-term residents and thus the obligations of states to persons with a
‘consolidated’ residence status. Long-term residents also enjoy considerable protection and their
residence may be terminated only on exceptional grounds and not automatically, if initial conditions
for admission or temporary residence are no longer met. 77
The Odysseus study also identifies a number of criteria used by the relevant countries to establish the
regularisation of illegal staying third country nationals, namely
• a geographical criterion (physical presence of the applicant before regularisation),
• an economic criterion (employment status);
• a humanitarian criterion (persons unable to return to their country of origin for reasons other
than those linked to the status of refugee under the Geneva Convention)
• a criterion relating to asylum procedures (e.g. undue length of the procedure)
• health reasons
• family related reasons
• a quantitative criterion relating to the number of regularizations granted;
• nationality of the applicant
• integration
• qualifications of the applicant
The focus of the Odysseus study on the analysis of regularisation practices from a comparative law
perspective is arguably also is its main weakness. The study has relatively little to say about the
implementation of regularisation. At the same time, the detailed statistical information collected for
the study (applications submitted, persons regularised and acceptance rates), which provides some
(albeit limited) indicators for the implementation of regularisation programmes, still has to be
regarded as a major achievement. The study also identified major deficiencies of data collection,
many of which remain valid today.
The study says little on the rationale of regularisation policies and on the target groups for
regularisation, although some reasons (long-term residence – fait accomplit, or regularisation on
protection grounds) are covered by its typology. Finally, the study also has little to say on the impact
and effectiveness of regularisation policies in terms of achieving wider goals. In both respects – the
rationale and impact of regularisation policies – the study essentially provides conclusions based on
normative reasoning rather than empirical analysis: it thus maintains that regularisations are a crucial
mechanism to both help integrate, and to reduce the stock of, illegal immigrants. Regularisation may
also, therefore, be a more humanitarian alternative to enforcing return.
77 Although the long-term residence directive (2003/109/EC) was adopted only 3 years after the Odysseus study
on regularisations, a majority of Member States covered by the study provided for a long-term (permanent)
residence status with a similar scope. See Groenendijk, K., Guild, E. & Barzilay, R. (2000): The Legal Status of
third country nationals who are long-term residents in a Member State of the European Union. Nijmegen:
Centre for Migration Law.
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