Illegal immigration
migration of people across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country
Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of that country's immigration laws, including unauthorized entry or continued residence after the expiration of a valid visa. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upward, with migrants moving from poorer to richer countries. Unauthorized residence can carry risks of detention, deportation, or other administrative sanctions, depending on national laws.
Some migrants, including asylum seekers, are legally protected from penalties under international law. Under Article 31 of the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, people who enter a country without authorization to seek asylum cannot be penalized solely for irregular entry if they present themselves promptly, and are lawfully allowed to remain until their cases are fully processed. Asylum seekers denied asylum may face impediment to expulsion if the home country refuses to receive the person or if new asylum evidence emerges after the decision. In some cases, these people are considered illegal aliens. In others, they may receive a temporary residence permit, for example regarding the principle of non-refoulement in the International Refugee Convention. The European Court of Human Rights, referring to the European Convention on Human Rights, has shown in a number of indicative judgments that there are enforcement barriers to expulsion to certain countries, for example, due to the risk of torture.
Terminology
In Europe, the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) launched its international "Words Matter" campaign in 2014 to promote the use of the terms undocumented or irregular migrants instead of illegal.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Illegal immigration” is migration of people across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Illegal, immigration and migration, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “migration of people across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q856681. The first chronological checks are 1951, 1967 and 2014.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Illegal immigration”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Illegal immigration primary sources, Illegal immigration archive and Illegal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Illegal immigration”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Illegal immigration” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.