The legal routes are also often strenuous, far too long lived, overly strict, and obtuse.
If you barely speak the language, it's not easy. Unfortunately many countries have made immigration so hard, in an effort to combat it, that they've done the opposite - people immigrate illegally because it has a higher success rate than doing it legally.
If I apply for X, Y, and Z and I'm denied, I'm fucked. But if I just move... And then figure it out later... That might work better.
And that's how we got into this mess. A lot of this anti-immigration legislation actually increases the incentives for illegal immigration.
Exactly, and one more thing: because of draconian immigration regimes, once people sneak in, they are extremely unlikely to move out until they get some sort of residence, which may never come. If it was easier to get in, people will come and go as needed, and you wouldn't have massive numbers of people coming and not leaving. There are many irregular immigrants that are stuck in their new countries for decades, unable to move anywhere else at all; many even die without seeing their homeland again.
In all countries there are posh, elite, nice areas, and yet you don't see everybody moving into those areas until there is no standing room. There is a natural equilibrium that is effective.
So overly tough immigration policies actually exacerbate the problem of illegal immigration in this way as well.
If you barely speak the language, it's not easy. Unfortunately many countries have made immigration so hard, in an effort to combat it, that they've done the opposite - people immigrate illegally because it has a higher success rate than doing it legally.
If I apply for X, Y, and Z and I'm denied, I'm fucked. But if I just move... And then figure it out later... That might work better.
And that's how we got into this mess. A lot of this anti-immigration legislation actually increases the incentives for illegal immigration.