Migrant Smuggling Data and Research

Mexican Migration Project (MMP) Survey 116
The MMP survey was created in 1982 through a collaboration between
researchers from Princeton University (United States) and University of
Guadalajara (Mexico) to collect social-behavioural and economic data on both
sides of the border to understand the complex process of Mexican migration to
the United States. Survey takers visit households elected through a sampling
procedure in selected Mexican towns and villages typically with high volumes
of outward migration to the United States. The survey measures changes in
social and demographic profiles of households with members who migrated to
the United States. Two to five Mexican communities are surveyed each year,
with 200 households typically being surveyed in each community. Following the
completion of the household surveys in Mexico, MMP then conducts interviews
in the United States with members of select households from the same
communities and who have settled in the United States. Migration experiences
are captured in these surveys that include any use of smuggling services. The
MMP makes its data files, code books and associated publications public.
Neither of the above-mentioned databases concerns specifically with
migrant smuggling, although the MMP data contain enough details to tease
out patterns of migrant smuggling activities. Large-scale research on migrant
smuggling, using systematic data collection methods such as surveys, is unheard
of in North America. Instead, research on migrant smuggling is mostly being
undertaken by a few independent researchers, mostly anthropologists and
sociologists, over the years. Most methods used in data collection are qualitative
and ethnographic in nature. One recent example was a field study on Mexican
smugglers on both sides of the border (Sanchez, 2015). In the years prior to
the publication of her book, Sanchez traversed both sides of the United States–
Mexican border, talking to smugglers of all types, young and old, men and
women, self-proclaimed do-gooders and deceptive entrepreneurs looking for
easy prey.
Clearly, there is a need for a more stable venue where migrant smuggling
data can be systematically collected and stored by an organization with stable
funding and administrative support. Entry by unauthorized migrants has always
been a major policy, as well as political issue in the United States and will remain
so for the foreseeable future. For the purpose of supplementing official data
and supporting government policymaking, an independent and stable data
warehouse is sorely needed to provide alternative venues for researchers to
analyse and disseminate smuggling research on a regular basis.
116
Details about the history and design of this study, as well as data access are available from http://mmp.opr.
princeton.edu/
Migrant Smuggling Data and Research:
A global review of the emerging evidence base
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