The article discusses the emergence of illegality as a social problem and the automatic linking of illegality to criminality. It focuses on illegal immigrants' differential involvement in types of crime. It explains this differential involvement on the basis of the extent to which illegal immigrants have access to the labor market and supportive networks, and on the basis of the implementation of policies towards illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants are a relatively new group of immigrants living at the margins of society. The article claims that these immigrants' relatively limited involvement in crime in general and differences between groups can be explained by their embeddedness in the labor sphere and support by ethnic communities. The article notes the social and legal construction of the illegal immigrant through new legislation and the increasing linkage of illegality and crime. It observes that the majority of illegal immigrants are not criminally active, with the exception of those active in the lower levels of the hard drug trade. The article suggests that the perception of the "criminal illegal immigrant" first and foremost reflects the division between wanted and unwanted immigrants, which is the result of the shift towards a restrictive policy. Notes, tables, references