Like Other European countries, the Netherlands is witnessing an increasing ‘irregularization’ of immigration. Concerns about lack of control have stimulated new legislation, particularly during the last decade. The most comprehenSive new law, the so-called Koppelingswet, or ‘Linking Act’, was enacted in 1998. The aim of this new law is to exclude undocumented immigrants from public services such as social benefits, insurance, health care, education and public housing. Building on the concept of ‘mixed embeddedness’, this paper asks the extent to which illegal immigrants are capable of incorporating themselves into the host society and the reactions of the welfare state’s gatekeepers to their presence. The Study is based on empirical research in the Netherlands’ four largest cities. ‬