Life Without Papers: Aspirations, incorporation and transnational activities of irregular migrants in the Low Countries

In Life without papers Masja van Meeteren analyzes patterns of incorporation and transnational activities of irregular migrants in the Low Countries. This book offers an empirically grounded theoretical critique of the dominant research practice that focuses on comparison of migrant communities, overemphasizes structural explanations, and adopts a ‘victim perspective’. Drawing on 164 in-depth interviews with irregular migrants, intensive participant observation, and 60 interviews with organizations that deal with irregular migrants, an alternative approach is developed that takes aspirations as a starting point of analysis. By doing so, new light is shed on previous findings regarding the functional and social incorporation of irregular migrants, their transnational activities, and the significance of different forms of capital.