Looking for Loopholes is a detailed account of how illegal immigrants manage to integrate into Dutch society. Drawing on long-term research in the four largest cities in the Netherlands, van der Leun discusses illegal immigration's relationships with illegal employment and criminal involvement, as well as aspects of education, housing, health care and police surveillance. Throughout, she combines the perspectives of immigrants with that of those who implement policies to discourage them, revealing growing tensions between restrictive rules and day-to-day reality.

Joanne van der Leun is Assistant Professor of Criminology at Leiden University. She studied Social Sciences in Utrecht and she received her PhD in Sociology at Erasmus University. Her research interests lie in issues of irregular migration, migration policies, informal economic and criminal activities in the urban environment.