Dealing with illegal stay: The perpetually unfinished business of EU immigration policy?

Returns of people staying illegally in a country and dealing with unauthorised stay more generally constitute a lasting challenge to the EU. Manifested through the widespread tolerance of people overstaying their visas, persistently low numbers of effective returns and the dysfunctions of the Schengen zone, EU policy in this area has not worked well for at least the past two decades. If the EU takes measures to limit the abuse of visa-free regimes, puts sufficient resources in place, and coordinates internally within countries and between its members, it could address some of the problems of illegal stay more effectively. Regularisations constitute an escape route for governments in that they eliminate illegal stay, but mass regularisations are problematic from the viewpoint of a migration policy’s legitimacy. Due the inherent limitations of the EU’s return policy it is necessary to increase the bloc’s efforts to prevent illegal departures towards the EU by sea, land and air.