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While the universal, rather than national, character of human rights means they should not be conditional on regular migratory status, the increasing tendency to criminalize migration leads to the systematic denial of these rights. Similarly, while being the child of an immigrant should not serve as a reason to deny protection against discrimination, which in its most extreme form leads to denial of the right to life, immigrants and their children are frequently segregated due to the criminalization of their status and are subjected to systematic and institutional discrimination. Criminalization and discrimination deny immigrants their human rights as on the one hand criminalization makes immigrants afraid to exercise their rights, while on the other social marginalization resulting from this discrimination places immigrants in conditions where these rights cannot be exercised.

DOI: 10.1057/9781137097552_4

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