148 Jutta Lauth Bacas destine migrants in the country’s territory is also characterized by some authors as illegal.3 In other words, irregular (or illegal) immigrants are foreigners who are in a country where they have no right to be. It has to be stressed that their illegality refers mainly to the absence of residence (and work) permits and has to be understood clearly as being politically and socially constructed, resulting in a complex process of inclusion and exclusion.4 On the one hand, many irregular migrants are quickly integrated into the grey areas of the local labour and housing market of the host society. On the other hand, due to their illegal status in the country of residence, they are excluded from basic social rights and access to social security and health services available to the country’s regular citizens. One of the most severe and far-reaching consequences of entering a country on clandestine land or sea routes is that most of the irregular newcomers have to stay underground. Due to the irregular character of these transnational migratory processes, very few statistical data are available and little is known about the lived experience of irregular migration. The research project I am presently conducting at the Academy of Athens in Greece aims to partly fill this gap and provide qualitative and quantitative data on how irregular migration in a Southeast European country works.5 In the framework of this research project, the Greek border island of Lesbos was chosen as a case in point. It is situated in the northern Aegean Sea opposite the Turkish mainland, with a small water channel of five to ten nautical miles separating the island from Asia Minor. By using an anthropological approach in investigating irregular migration to Greece, and using qualitative research methods such as extended field work, participant observation and in-depth interviewing, it was possible to focus on a less investigated aspect of irregular migration: the arrival of undocumented boat migrants on a Greek border island. Based on anthropological field work on the island of Lesbos, the following chapters will present selected ethnographic data on illegal maritime migration from Turkey to Greece. 3 4 5 destinely, without identification documents, and who disregard national and European visa regulations. For a definition see also Clandestino (2008). On the concept of illegal migrants, see Duvell (2006), Chavez (2007). The relationship between irregular migration and human rights is discussed by social anthropologists and lawyers in Bogusz et al. (2004). First results of the research project “Migration to Greece: Legality and Illegality” are published in Greek in the Yearbook (2006) of the Research Centre for Greek Society of the Academy of Athens. See Lauth Bacas (2006).