Criminalizing inmigrants

In this paper, I show that there are many ways of limiting the access to social rights through the use of criminal legislation addressed to disadvantaged groups specially, immigrants. I start by describing situations in which disadvantaged groups, e.g. poor and immigrants are prosecuted and punished for crimes against private property (e.g. burglary and theft). This judicial movement is reinforced with a political discourse that tends to stigmatized poor and immigrants as criminals, potential criminals or dangerous people. These political movements try to demonize immigrant and transform them into enemies of the society. They create a false image of immigrant as a criminal and blame them for the scarcity of jobs and social help. The aim of this political movement has to horns: the first one is to reduce population in societies which are suffering economical problems and the second and most important one is to eliminate the chance of many immigrant to access to social health and social rights.

I will argue that there are some legal regulations in some special and extreme conditions of poverty; disadvantaged groups could disobey some legal rules, particularly some new criminal legislation that it could be considered part of the overcriminalization process.