To accomplish this feat, exactitude and attention to detail must, at times, be sacrificed in favour of general approximations and impressionistic accounts.
The compromises imposed by the constraints of space are com­pounded by those created by the second unavoidable phenomenon that renders the subject matter inimical to a modest introduction: immigra­tion law is a branch of law which, for the last twenty years, has been reshaped and transformed continuously. This fluidity appears likely to continue into the foreseeable future. Nor have the changes been minor ones of the housekeeping variety, although these have been plentiful too.