The asylum system, migrant networks and the Informal labour market

Governments attempting to regulate labour markets and control immigration are confronted with difficult questions. In the past, there was general agreement that the asylum system should not be exploited as a side entrance to the labour market. The two systems—asylum and labour market—were to be planned and maintained separately. But if migration is a prerequisite for asylum, does not increasingly stiffer migration control block escape for those under persecution? Prices for smuggling go up, and smugglers seek new routes, yet irregular migration continues, and the informal labour market flourishes. Here we must ask an irreverent question: is there any point in having both systems? And can the crux of the matter be that both are repeatedly branded as an ‘illegal’ phenomena which must be ‘battled’ like enemies? This contribution asks whether the asylum system a way to regulate the informal labour market within the EU?