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Netherlands' Immigration Policy Effects the Survival Development of the Undocumented Migrants

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Introduction
Immigration has always been high on the political agenda of many countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). During the last decades, the figure of international immigration has continued to rise, with about 3.6 million immigrants entering OECD countries in 2007. (OECD 2009a) Meanwhile, there are significant flows of illegal immigrants as well, but due to its secretive nature the accurate data is unavailable. Various measures have taken to try to control illegal immigrant flows, including stricter border control, identity checks, forced return and denial of survival, social security rights. Netherland, as one of the OECD countries, has also gradually adopted policies that exclude the …show more content…

Survive may carry different meaning for everyone. Some may say one cannot survive without money, cloths, or other material objects; some may also argue that one cannot survive without psychological support such as religious believes. In fact, going back to Jim Ife’s idea, survival rights simply refers to the aspect we need the most to survive: food, shelter and basic health care. These rights are the least likely to be disagreed upon, and also have the strongest claim to universality. As Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”

Clearly, survival rights apply to all human beings, as they are the most basic preconditions for a person to maintain livelihood. Regardless of one’s race, skin color, sex, nationality, social status, cultural backgrounds, one cannot survive without access to these rights. Yet, for the undocumented migrants in the Netherlands, such fundamental human rights are being deprived. The reality is very harsh to them when it comes to survival. Before we approach to their current situation, it would be appropriate to clarify the concept of

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