The process of undocumented migration raises some of the most pressing political and social issues of contemporary time, both within many individual countries and at the international level. The unauthorized entry, presence, and employment of increasing numbers of aliens poses distinct problems of border control and deterrence, and unique concerns of human and democratic rights. This Research Opportunities for Women Planning Grant will enable the investigator to plan for a comparative study of the social and legal status of undocumented immigrants in contemporary France and Spain. The study will involve examination of each state's immigration regulatory regime, including formal rules and their enforcement; rules and practices regarding the treatment of undocumented immigrants in matters not directly related to immigration regulation; and the interplay between both of these sociolegal spheres within each state. The planning grant will enable the investigator to intensively study the European civil law system, establish research contacts and resources, and further develop the research model and design of the project. The study of undocumented immigrants in receiving countries provides a striking model of the complex interplay between legal status and social relationships in an individual society. This study will be unique in that it will document the relationship between the immigrant's status as an object of immigration control and his/her legal and social status in society in the non- immigration regulatory spheres. The results of the forthcoming research project will contribute to knowledge about the competing drives toward closure and inclusion and toward national community and universal human rights that often plague democratic nations. As such the study will facilitate the advancement of general hypotheses about the internal functioning of national political and social systems in an era of significant international population movements.
