Migrant Smuggling Data and Research

11
LATIN AMERICA
Gabriella E. Sanchez
Introduction
Latin America constitutes one of the most important corridors for irregular
migration globally, yet as other authors in this issue highlight in regard to their
corresponding regions, empirical engagements with smuggling activity have
been scarce. The images of migrants riding atop of trains or crossing desolate
deserts often mobilized to represent irregular migration flows in this continent
communicate a feeling of urgency that while relevant, far from represents the
dynamics of a sometimes highly visible yet still poorly understood practice.
This chapter examines the references to the dynamics of irregular
migration facilitation in Mexico, Central America and South America present in
the literature on irregular and transit migration. Recent developments on human
mobility pertaining to population flows from and within the Caribbean also
constitute an important element of the larger Latin-American migratory system,
and therefore their dimensions are included in this chapter where relevant. Yet
it is again important to emphasize that the empirical work on irregular migration
facilitation processes throughout the entire region has been limited, and that
data are therefore scant, particularly outside of the Central American and
Mexican routes.
While much interest has been placed on the role of transnational smuggling
networks, as well as on the criminally organized efforts behind the provision of
smuggling services throughout Latin America, historically, irregular migration
processes in the continent have often involved less nefarious mechanisms, and
are in fact more directly connected to the long culture of migration across the
continent, and to the transnational ties these migratory journeys have created
(Spener, 2014 and 2009; López Castro, 1998; Kandel and Massey, 2002). Every
year, thousands of people leave their places of origin for the United States and
Europe – the top destinations for migrants from Latin America with the purpose
of migrating – relying on methods that are far from violent or dark (obtaining valid
visas through legal channels, overstaying legitimate entry permits, borrowing
Migrant Smuggling Data and Research:
A global review of the emerging evidence base
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