Illegal immigrant

Illegal immigration is the migration of people across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country. Immigration, including illegal immigration, is overwhelmingly upward, from a poorer to a richer country. However, it is also noted that illegal immigrants tend not to be the poorest within the populations they emigrate from. Some countries have millions of illegal immigrants.

When potential immigrants believe that the chances/benefits of successfully migrating are greater than the risks/costs, illegal immigration becomes an option. The benefits taken into account include not only expected improvements in income and living conditions, but also expectations in relation to potential future residential permits, where illegal immigrants are given a path to naturalization or citizenship. The costs may include restrictions on living as an illegal immigrant in the destination country, leaving family and ways of life behind, the experience of visible or verbal disdain by native-born residents in the host country, and the probability of being detained and resulting sanctions.

There have been campaigns to discourage the use of the term 'illegal immigrant' in many countries since 2007, generally based on the argument that the act of immigration may be illegal in some cases, but the people themselves are not illegal. In the United States, a "Drop the I-Word" campaign was launched in 2010 to advocate the use of terms such as "undocumented immigrants" or "unauthorized immigrants" to refer to the foreign nationals who reside in a country illegally. The term "illegalized immigrant" is increasingly used to draw attention away from the individual migrant and focus on the actions of the state, which actively denies people legal residency.

News associations that have discontinued or discourage the use of the adjective "illegal" to describe people include the US Associated Press, UK Press Association, European Journalism Observatory,European Journalism Centre,Association of European Journalists, Australian Press Council, and Australian Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance.

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