 |
| Zócala, Mexico City Photo by Ari Helminen |
However, in an interesting inversion of the normal discussion, the BBC has a fascinating article about American illegal aliens in Mexico and the Mexican government doesn't give a damn.
Of course, as shelteroffshore.com points out, you do not want to get deported from a country. Your passport will be stamped and that will make it much harder to visit other countries when they see you've been deported and decide that they don't want to risk you overstaying your visa. However, some people are going to risk this anyway. I knew one illegal in Amsterdam who was sending a lot of money back home because the Euro was so much stronger than their home country's currency. And if you can mange to pull off being an illegal in the UK for 14 years, you can apply for residency.
Illegal English teachers are moderately common in Asia and South American borders tend to be rather, um, porous. I've known a few illegal aliens and I would really like to find more and chat with them. Naturally, this is not a topic which illegals naturally sit up and talk about. Plus, with all of the anti-immigration rhetoric, it's very hard to use a search engine to get good quality research results in this area. Anyone have any good recommendations for me to read? I don't want to encourage people to be illegal aliens, but it would be remiss of me to not discuss such an important topic.
Side note: I might have been an illegal once. A decade ago I was working in Amsterdam and it was never clear to me that my company had put through the right paperwork. However, I left that position because the company was awful, but I did worry about this a bit when I returned to Amsterdam a decade later. I certainly didn't intend to be working illegally, but I trusted the company which hired me. Amazingly, when I showed up at customs back in 2001, they asked why I was there and I said I had a job and they waived me through without looking at my paperwork. It was almost a letdown, given all of the paperwork I had gathered.
Good post. Yes, Americans can be illegals too. I have met Americans in Paris that I have suspected of being illegals which puts me something of a quandary because if I have proof I am required by French law to turn them in. I have never had that proof and so I've never faced that situation and I sincerely hope that I never ever will.
ReplyDeleteRequired by French law? Can you cite that law? I'd love to find out more about it and how it would impact me if anyone "confessed".
DeleteHere it is http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCodeArticle.do?idArticle=LEGIARTI000006335286&cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006070158&dateTexte=20080505
ReplyDeleteAnd it says clearly "Toute personne qui aura, par aide directe ou indirecte, facilité ou tenté de faciliter l'entrée, la circulation ou le séjour irréguliers, d'un étranger en France sera punie d'un emprisonnement de cinq ans et d'une amende de 30 000 Euros."
That is 5 years in prison and a 30,000 Euro fine.
Victoria: Ouch! I'd likely face deportation, too, I'm guessing. I think I won't ask too many questions of the people I meet.
DeleteIf you do not mind, I would like to say that there is nothing in this article about having to turn them in to avoid sanction. This article is about not helping them, not facilitating their illegal statuts by anyway, not about denouncement.
DeleteLeila, would tenté de faciliter ... le séjour irréguliers count? By keeping silent when you know they're illegal, you could be aiding their residence? (I have no clue about French law, so I'm genuinely curious about the interpretation of that. I know it could be tricky in the US if that was not rigorously defined).
DeleteIf you read the articles linked below, you can see that Charity are fighting to put a end to this article. However, they all agree that no one who has been helping has ever been charged. If people helping are not charge, I do think you can consider that people who just know are in no danger at all.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.laissezpasser.info/post/2009/04/08/Il-faut-abroger-l-article-L622-1
http://strasbourg.cafebabel.com/fr/post/2009/05/01/L.-622-1
Hi Leila, I do see your point but those of us who are here as legal residents and not citizens have to be super careful. We do not have the same rights as citizens, there is a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric in France right now and it just seems prudent to stay as far away as possible from anyone who might be in an irregular situation. Just my .02.
ReplyDeleteVictoria
I understand being careful, I just do not want people thinking that denouncement is what's expected from them. France is far from being perfect but denouncement is not acceptable. It sends us back to some dark time. We are not there anymore. At least I hope.
DeleteA few older articles about developed-world illegal immigrants in developing countries I dug out of my pinboard.in account: Thousands of Americans enter Schengen and stay in Czech Republic illegally, Mexico's illegal immigrants? Americans, Angola expels 42 Portuguese without work visas. and a few about South Koreans in the Philippines (1, 2, 3).
ReplyDeleteLots of illegal first world citizens in third world countries like those in Latin America. The government doesn't care. Peru has a $1 fine, so they'd rather you overstay your visa. You border hop and come back. People have even negotiated the fines. Corruption galore.
ReplyDeleteIllegal immigration can't be stopped no matter what policy is implemented. It is everywhere, and it's rate will continue to increase.
ReplyDelete