MINI REVIEW article
Front. Hum. Dyn.
Sec. Dynamics of Migration and (Im)Mobility
This article is part of the Research TopicLabour and Health of Undocumented Migrant Women: Condition, Trends and Critical IssuesView all 4 articles
Invisible by Law: Germany's Immigration Policy and the Exclusion of Undocumented Women in Leipzig
Provisionally accepted
- University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The intersection of gender, irregular legal status, and economic precarity places undocumented women in Leipzig at heightened risk of exclusion from both healthcare and the labor market. German migration policy, increasingly centered on border enforcement and deterrence, continues to neglect the realities of women working in informal care and domestic sectors. This policy orientation reinforces institutional barriers, especially in reproductive and mental healthcare, and marginalizes undocumented women within systems of care and employment. Between March and June 2025, a structured mini‑review of academic and grey literature was conducted using the Vienna University Library and key NGO reports. The review analyzed gendered exclusions across Germany’s legal, healthcare, and labor frameworks, with a particular focus on Leipzig. Findings indicate a striking absence of gender-disaggregated municipal data, perpetuating the invisibility of undocumented women. This invisibility is unintentionally reinforced by Section 87 of the Residence Act (AufenthG), which obliges public authorities to report undocumented individuals, thereby deterring women from accessing healthcare or labor rights protections. The review confirms national trends of labor exploitation and healthcare avoidance among undocumented migrants while highlighting the significant data gaps in Leipzig, which undermine effective local governance. Addressing this invisibility requires gender-sensitive data collection, robust legal firewalls decoupling essential services from immigration enforcement, and targeted municipal investment in safe-reporting mechanisms. The Leipzig case demonstrates how migration law, though not explicitly intended for this purpose, produces exclusionary effects underscoring the need for rights-based reforms that recognize undocumented women as social and political actors rather than individuals rendered invisible.
Keywords: undocumented women, German migration policy, Section 87 of the Residence Act, Gendered Migration, healthcare access 5
Received: 30 Jun 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Escobar Cuero. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Gina Paola Escobar Cuero, ginapescobarc@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.