Wiktionary
n. The migration of people across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destined country.
Wikipedia
Illegal immigration is the migration of people across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country. Some countries have millions of illegal immigrants. 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.
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.
Usage examples of "illegal immigration".
The camps on Cyprus were established as a direct result of the pressure of illegal immigration and specifically of the success of the Star of David expedition.
As Coe was rambling on ad nauseam about the necessity of quotas and the burden on the social welfare rolls due to illegal immigration, even citing facts and figures, the snakehead was thinking about how sad it was that he couldn't take this woman back with him to show her the beauties of Xiamen, walk with her around Nanputou Templea huge Buddhist monasteryand then take her for peanut soup or noodles near the waterfront.
The politics and morality of illegal immigration meant nothing to the Ghost but he wondered if Coe knew that there were proportionally fewer Chinese-Americans on welfare than any other nationality, including native-born whites.
There's nothing in his record to link him to illegal immigration, but the feds are out of the loop on most of this stuff.
Said she wanted to do something about illegal immigration, how it's affecting the ranchers down near the border.
Still, there was too much poverty in the region, and we had serious problems with drugs and illegal immigration.