Educational Research - the Ethics and Aesthetics of Statistics

Chapter 7
To Frame the Unframable: Quantifying
Irregular Migrants’ Presence
Elias Hemelsoet
7.1 Introduction
For various reasons, irregular migration has become a more frequent phenomenon
during the last decades. Without going deeper into the globalising context of growing
and changing migration tendencies in different parts of the world, it should be
remarked that this topic is gaining attention. Until recently, there was only a limited
amount of scientific evidence on irregular migration (with a focus on clandestine
activities such as human trafficking and smuggling). But these days, in Western
societies there are humanitarian and social problems related to the growth of this
group, problems which have stimulated political discussion. This has subsequently
led to scientific research on the subject. Irregular migrants have become visible in
our everyday lives. They defend their rights in self-help groups, protest marches and
hunger strikes and they are visible in the streets: we are all familiar with the salesman
in the Pakistani night shop, the East-European or South-American cleaning
lady in the hotel, the gipsy woman begging for money. These clichés provide prototypical
examples of the role irregular migrants play in the public imagination. As a
consequence of this situation, both politicians and scientists want to ‘grab hold’ of
what is happening and to acquire an overview of the state of affairs. Predominantly
short-term government-driven research is flourishing.
It is interesting to have a closer look at this research. In 2005, the Government of
UK attempted to estimate the numbers of irregular migrants and published the UK’s
first official estimate of irregular migration (Woodbridge, 2005). The aim of the
study was to review methods that have been used in different countries to estimate
the number of illegally resident persons, followed by an assessment of the applicability
of these methods to the UK. The presupposition of this Government-directed
initiative is the idea that ‘sizing the illegally resident population’ will contribute in
some way or another to migration policy. The Institute for Public Policy Research
E. Hemelsoet (B)
Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
P. Smeyers, M. Depaepe (eds.), Educational Research: The Ethics and Aesthetics
of Statistics, Educational Research 5, DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-9873-3_7,
C○ Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
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