Abstract

The group of illegal immigrants has no official registration and therefore represents ‘an invisible rightless class’. To find out how undocumented immigrants perceive themselves in our society, we carried out a qualitative research. We did 65 in-depth interviews with undocumented immigrants. In our analysis, we chose an approach according to the ‘grounded theory’ as brought forward by Glaser and Strauss, because we wanted to build our theoretical findings on the immediate world of interpretation, as formulated by illegal residents themselves. When analysing the degree of integration in our society, it is remarkable that most of them create a world of their own, often in great solidarity with other undocumented immigrants, mostly fellow citizens originating from the same country. Together they represent an ‘outsider community’: a community relying on itself.

How to Cite:

Devillé, A., (2006) “De onzichtbare rechteloze klasse: de leef- en belevingswereld van mensen zonder wettig verblijf in Vlaanderen en Brussel”, Tijdschrift voor Sociologie 27(2), 131–156. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/sociologos.86653