Sponsors of Entrance and Settlement: The Actions of Intermediaries

Abstract

Because unauthorized immigrants are officially excluded from formal labour markets, housing markets and most welfare provisions, they can settle only if they find other sources of work, income, housing, and social protection. In this regard, a crucial role is played by intermediaries, i.e., people or institutions who favour the entrance of immigrants, facilitate their access to labour markets, provide accommodations, respond to their social needs, and possibly assist regularization. These intermediaries are often but not exclusively coethnics. They may act for profit, as in the case of smugglers, or for moral reasons. They may break laws and work in the shadows or work legally, also because several intermediaries are firmly embedded in receiving societies or even in public bodies.