Migrant Smuggling Data and Research

smugglers as criminals have evolved over the years. First, from a border security
perspective, the illegality of migrants’ movements makes migrants offenders
of national immigration laws, which often denies full protection from receiving
countries in the first place. Second, however, smuggled migrants’ vulnerability
exposes them to physical and verbal abuses by smugglers and employers
and becomes target for human trafficking. Third, not all smuggled migrants
are irregular labour migrants; asylum seekers are also smuggled by Christian
missionaries. Fourth, not all people smuggling involves financial transaction;
there are altruistic or religious smuggling in relatively safe hands. Fifth, there
are female smugglers who play different roles than their male fellow smugglers;
while men operate on the transfer of people, women offer care, food and shelter.
Sixth, today’s smuggled migrants may become tomorrow’s smugglers through
accumulated networks. Without understanding this complex nature of migrant
smuggling, policymakers cannot properly respond to it.
Review of migrant smuggling research
Main academic inquiries and scope of research
The main academic inquiries on human smuggling in North-East Asia have
traditionally focused on smuggled migrants’ and smugglers’ socioeconomic
profile, causes of and motivations for their movements, smuggling routes
and social networks. Scholars work on the securitization of migration and the
conceptualization of migrant smuggling within broader irregular migration
frameworks. Human security and development have been linked to irregular
migration. The scope of the research is currently not geographically proportional.
While topics on Chinese outbound migrant smuggling to the United States and
Europe are dominant, there is a paucity of academic research on human smuggling
in and out of other parts of North-East Asia. Studies on North Korean migrants
have increased over the past years, both in English and Korean languages.
Empirical data on migrant smuggling in Mongolia or the Russian Federation is
almost non-existent (Drbohlav, Stych and Dzúrová, 2013; Lee, 2005).
Current research on China focuses extensively on migratory streams from
Fujian Province to the United States (Chu, 2011; Lu, Liang and Chunyu, 2013;
Sheng and Bax, 2012; Zhang and Chin, 2002; Zhang, Chin and Miller, 2007).
While there is also a body of literature on human smuggling from China to
Europe (Chin, 2003; Laczko, 2003; Lu, Liang and Chunyu, 2013; Pieke et al., 2004;
Silverstone, 2011), there appears to be disagreement on the extent to which
such migratory flows are occurring. Studies are concerned with how human
smuggling continues to perpetuate despite strict controls (Li, 2012; Lu, Liang
Migrant Smuggling Data and Research:
A global review of the emerging evidence base
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