REGINE Regularisations in Europe Final Report - European ...

live their lives without fear.” 171 In line with unions’ concerns over the vulnerability of irregular
migrant workers, debates on irregular migrant work are often linked to forced labour and trafficking:
several unions, among them the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and various British and Belgian
unions, have demanded special protection measures, including access to legal status, for victims of
forced labour and labour-related trafficking. The Greek Trade Union, GSEE, has the clearest
preference for regularisation because of the sheer magnitude of the illegal migrant population in
Greece and argues that a “mass regularisation programme of migrants in Greece is imminent because,
according to the calculation of our trade union, 50%-60% of migrants in Greece remain
undocumented”. 172
The benefits of regularisation
The trade unions that have responded to the ICMPD TU questionnaire generally cautiously support
regularisations. Indeed, in several EU Member States, trade unions have been involved in campaigns
for the regularisation of irregular migrants. Similarly, ongoing campaigns for regularisation
programmes in Belgium, France, Ireland and the UK are strongly supported by trade unions. Thus, the
Belgian trade union LBC-NVK (a white collar trade union) considers regularisations to be an
appropriate measure “under certain conditions (…)[that is] as long as it offers social protection to all
employees/active people in Belgium, as long as it affects social dumping policies in a positive way
and as long as there is severe control of companies selling fake job contracts to illegal migrants.”
However, “it is clear (…) that a regularisation policy (on a national level) will not be enough (…) to
combat illegal employment.” 173 Accordingly, the union is currently, along with other unions, in
negotiation with the Belgian government on selective, targeted regularisations. The scheme foresees
that migrants who reach a certain level on a points scale which is composed of parameters such as
legal work, language skills and integration, among others, would be regularized. Another Belgian
union, CGSLB, stresses the positive potential impact of regularisation on occupational mobility and
working conditions and, from the government perspective, the additional income it would generate for
public funds. 174
In Portugal, the trade union CGTP emphasises that regularisation programmes are potentially highly
effective tools to combat social exclusion, insecurity, and poverty and prevent marginalised
immigrant groups from becoming involved in petty crime. 175 In addition, the union stresses that
previous regularisation programmes in Portugal did have a major impact on the economy, and
increased tax payments, social security contributions and decreased the informal sector. Another
Portuguese trade union, UGT, also stresses the social benefits of regularisation programmes, in
particular for the protection of migrant workers’ rights. However, it rejects extraordinary
regularisation programmes and stresses the need for well-managed, controlled migration as the
171 Irish Congress of Trade Unions (2007): A Fair ‘Way In’. Congress Proposal for a Fair Regularisation
Process for Undocumented Workers in Ireland, p.2 Document provided to the authors.
172 GSEE, Response, ICMPD NGO Questionnaire, 30 May 2008.
173 LBC-NVK, Response, ICMPD TU Questionnaire, 2008.
174 Centrale générale des syndicats libéraux de Belgique (CGSLB), Response, ICMPD TU Questionnaire, 2008
175 Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses –Intersindical Nacional (CGTP), Portugal, Interview
with Carlos Trindade (Executive Committee, Migrations Department), Manuel Correia (President of “Sindicato
das Indústrias Eléctricas do Sul e Ilhas”), Yasmin Arango Torres (União dos Sindicatos de Lisboa), Lisbon, 26
February 2008.
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