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of migrants and multiculturalism. Since then, the focus has been increasingly on security
and migration is linked to crime and terrorism. 365
Destination country legislation and policy is often centred on giving effect to
classifi cations of wanted and unwanted migrants. The objective of classifi cation is to
regulate immigration, to manage it so that the advantages can be gained for receiving
countries and the perceived pressures of infl uxes of unpopular kinds of migrants can be
avoided. In e.g. the EU there has been a race to the bottom as the toughest policies have
been generalized throughout the Member States, rather than the more generous.
The use of terminology is crucial in shaping the debate on migration, particularly when
sensitive political issues relating to immigration at the national level are concerned. For
example, the failure to explain the legal distinction between persons seeking asylum and
economic migrants in debates at the national level is often at the heart of negative public
and media perceptions of these groups, with the result that the political response to address
this discontent is invariably a disproportionate one. The perception of irregular migrants
is also shaped by the current terminology in use at the EU level. While most organisations
with a mandate on migration have now adopted a more neutral terminology by referring
to migrants with no legal status in the country as ‘irregular’, 366 the EU institutions and
the measures that have been adopted under Title IV of the EC Treaty and Title VI of the
EU Treaty persist in using the terms ‘illegal migrants’ or ‘illegal immigration’. Moreover,
the more pejorative term ‘illegals’, often slang usage among offi cials and practitioners, has
also made its way into offi cial EU texts. 367 Presumably, this is not necessarily deliberate,
365 The juxtaposition of migration with criminal matters and policing in the broader EU context has
a relatively long history. Indeed, the ‘TREVI’ group, established in 1976 and considered to be the
forerunner for inter-governmental co-operation on asylum and immigration between the interior
ministries of EU Member States, began operating in the context of the prevention of trans-border
crime. Asylum and immigration, as matters that also transcended borders, were subsequently
considered as suitable and logical additions to this portfolio. It is not surprising, therefore, that many
of the measures adopted by European immigration ministers during the period of ad hoc intergovernmental
co-operation were generally repressive in content and mainly concerned co-operation
regarding expulsion, the prevention of illegal employment, etc. Parallel developments taking place
among the Schengen states at this time also considered migration and criminal matters together. The
Schengen Implementing Agreement (SIA), now partly incorporated into the Community pillar, is
a clear example of this approach, although it is sub-divided into sections dealing with internal and
external border controls, responsibility of states for determining asylum applications (now defunct
in the light of the Dublin Convention and the subsequent ‘Dublin II’ Regulation) and police and
criminal co-operation. However, the area where there is the closest relationship between migration and
criminal matters is the Schengen Information System (SIS) containing alerts about objects (associated
with criminal activity) and aliens (third country nationals), who are considered a threat to the public
policy or national security of an EU Member State.
366 See International Labour Organisation (ILO), IOM, and the Council of Europe. With regard to the
IOM, the International Migration Law Glossary on Migration (Geneva, IOM, 2004) uses the term
‘irregular migrant’ and ‘irregular migration’: at 34-5.
367 See Council Conclusions on the development of the Visa Information System (VIS), Council doc
6534/04, 20 Feb 2004, which state that one of the purposes of VIS is to ‘assist in the identifi cation
and documentation of undocumented illegals and simplify the administrative procedures for returning
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