Undocumented migrants in urban centres across Europe face complex challenges in accessing housing, employment, healthcare, and protection, with their experiences shaped by legal status, local policies, and socio-economic conditions. In France and Belgium, two key migration destinations, they often rely on informal networks and civil society actors to overcome structural barriers. Yet, such barriers are likely to harden due to the recent rise in border identity checks between France and Belgium and increasingly hostile and dangerous public spaces for undocumented migrants both in France and Belgium.  

 In this context, MMC conducted 1,002 interviews with migrants from Afghanistan, Algeria, Guinea, Morocco, and Tunisia between July and December 2024. Since the objective of the study was to understand the impact of irregularity, respondents were selected among those who did not have a legal residency in Belgium or France at the time of data collection.

The interviews aimed to explore the journeys of undocumented migrants to Europe, their sources and use of information, current access to basic services, and return intentions.