On Nov 08, 2022, the third “Topical Social Sciences Seminar” of Fudan Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences (Fudan IAS) was held in Fudan University. The speaker of this session was Dr. Siyu Luo, postdoctoral fellow at Fudan IAS and doctor of law from the University of Manchester. Her topic was Semiillegality under the Liberal and Humanitarian Paradoxes: A Case Study of Irregular Chinese Migrants in the UK.. Prof. Sujian Guo, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Fudan IAS, chaired the seminar. All research and post-doctoral fellows of Fudan IAS attended the seminar.
Dr. Luo began by describing a two-year field study she had conducted in a Chinese community in the UK. Through the survey, she found that many irregular Chinese migrants have been ordered to leave the UK and detained in repatriation centers, but ultimately have not been repatriated to their home country and have remained in the UK indefinitely. The so-called "illegal" Chinese immigrants are not completely illegal, but are in a status of "semiillegality", that is, they do not have the right of abode in the UK, but live in government-provided welfare housing, and report to the Immigration Department on a monthly or even weekly basis. The UK Immigration Department sends someone to their residence every month to persuade them to leave the UK, or detain them, send them to repatriation centers and re-release them in a few weeks or months.
According to Dr. Luo, this phenomenon shows that legal and illegal immigration are not black and white, but there is grey area in between. She pointed out that this semiillegal status is rooted in the contradictions inherent in the so-called liberal polity of the West, what James Hollifield calls the liberal paradox and humanitarian paradox. The liberal paradox means that Western governments should implement an open immigration policy out of economic demand for cheap labor; on the other hand, out of political demand, governments should implement strict immigration policies, especially for restricting the entry of low-skilled labor. Under the liberal paradox, Western governments are often, on the surface, very strict to immigration, and they control the number of immigrants and do not allow low-skilled immigrants to enter the country; in practice, they always allow more immigrants to enter the country, including low-skilled immigrants. These "redundant" immigrants serve as cheap labor when the economy is growing, and as scapegoats when the economy is in recession and unemployment rises, they are arrested, detained, and repatriated.
The humanitarian paradox refers to the fact that, on the one hand, bound by international human rights law, the liberal states are supposed to protect the basic human rights of all persons under its jurisdiction, regardless of whether the person has the right of abode or not; on the other hand, influenced by anti-immigrant sentiments, the nation-states are continuously weakening the protection of the human rights of immigrants, in particular irregular immigrants. In a humanitarian paradox, these countries claim to repatriate all illegal immigrants, but they are bound by international human rights law and cannot forcibly repatriate all illegal immigrants. Therefore, a large number of migrants who have been ordered to be repatriated have not in fact been repatriated and may reside in the UK indefinitely. This status is “semiilligeal”.
Dr. Luo argues that semiillegality and other gray areas of immigration are not an anomaly in these polities, nor is it a failure of the immigration control system. It is rooted in the contradictions inherent in Western polities, which are based on so-called economic liberalism and humanitarianism, and are meanwhile increasingly influenced by domestic nationalism and xenophobia.
After Dr. Luo’s speech, the participants discussed and exchanged their views on the concepts, theories, realities and other issues related to this topic.