Europeans prefer policies that offer irregular migrants paths to legal status rather than those that do not, according to a study carried out in the UK, Poland, Sweden, Italy and Austria by the Migration Policy Centre of the European University Institute (EUI).
The 20,000 respondents were confronted with different policy options offering or limiting rights to social protection, labour protection and healthcare for irregular migrants, as well as “regularisation programmes” offering pathways to legal status.
“In every one of the five countries surveyed, there was a preference for policies that offer irregular migrants a route to legal status - under specific conditions, such as a minimum length of stay and a clean criminal record - over those that did not”.
However, public support for the provision of primary healthcare varies from country to country: British respondents are the least supportive, while Italian respondents are the most supportive, adds the EUI.
Link to the study: https://aeur.eu/f/g7v (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)