Economic aspects of irregular immigration into the European Union

Abstract

In recent years, Europe has experienced a huge influx of “irregular” or “unlawful” immigrants, mostly from the Middle East and Africa, unprecedented in modern history. More than a million migrants crossed into Europe in 2015, entering mostly through six European Union nations - Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Malta and Cyprus. The vast majority arrived by sea but about a third made their way over land via Turkey. There are push and pull factors causing such a large migration inflow into the EU, with the push being civil war and terror in the country of origin of the migrants and the pull factor being the a better quality of life in Europe.