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 com�pounded by
those created by the second unavoidable phenomenon that renders the
subject matter inimical to a modest introduction: immigra�tion 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.