Analytic note by Guy Mundlak - Two competing views of irregularity in migration dominate the legal debate. The first sees irregularity as a form of deviant behavior that justifies the denial of rights, deportation and the development of negative incentives for illegal migrants. The second holds irregularity to be an outcome of diverse circumstances, some of which are beyond the migrant's control and some of which require the state to adjust its immigration policy. According to this second viewpoint, irregularity should sometimes be addressed by means of regularization, securing rights and strengthening the state's responsibility toward its migrants. The two views clash: (a) over the understanding of who the irregular migrants are and the reasons for their irregularity, (b) over the balance between the state's monopoly on determining citizenship, and the view that de facto affiliation with the community and other values such as moral obligation and moral worth can impose on the state recognition of status (c) over the conceptual relationship between uninvited presence and rights, and (d) over the likely effects of granting rights on the inflow of further irregular migrants.
