Across Europe, politicians promise to “stop irregular migration” as if it were a problem that comes from the outside — a flow of people trying to evade the rules. The proposed solution is always the same: tougher enforcement, higher visa fees, shorter permits, and stricter border controls.

But what if irregular migration is not something that happens despite the system, but because of it? What if the very policies designed to prevent irregularity are the ones that keep producing it? I ask in a piece published in The Political Quarterly, drawing on the I-CLAIM concept paper on the irregularisation of migration and migrants in Europe.