Migrant Smuggling Data and Research

In a market environment where goods and services cannot be openly
advertised and traded, brokers are functionally imperative in connecting
otherwise disjointed partners for business transactions (Burt, 2005). The nodal
positions occupied by the brokers also controls access to the desired services or
goods. As long as the asymmetries of information and access remain, the broker
will benefit from this competitive edge (Burt, 1992; Morselli and Roy, 2008).
For the non-territorial transnational migrant smuggling rings, much more
research is needed. Little is known about how smugglers of different ethnic and
national backgrounds mobilize resources and find partners to collaborate in
the transportation of unauthorized migrants. Much empirical work is needed
to develop and test theoretical understandings of how loosely affiliated groups
of individuals seem capable of accomplishing seemingly complex criminal
operations over vast distances. From cross-border migrant smuggling to drug
trafficking, there is no shortage of successful stories as well as spectacular
failures. Criminal entrepreneurs have managed to carve out profitable niche
market for offering underground travel services to whoever is willing to pay.
Migrant smugglers are capable of ingenious use of social networks and counterenforcement
maneuverings.
Emerging nexus between drug trafficking and migrant smuggling
What has emerged in recent years from recent field activities by this author
in San Diego and research colleagues elsewhere along the United States–Mexico
border is that an increasing number of unauthorized migrants from Mexico
reported that they were often forced by their smugglers to carry drug-stuffed
backpacks when crossing into the United States. Official reports also suggest
such a trend. For instance, in a recent case, three Mexican men were caught
using a 27-foot fishing boat of the Texas coast of Padre Island National Seashore
for smuggling unauthorized migrants into the United States (US ICE, 2016). The
three Mexican smugglers launched their boat from Playa Bagdad in the northern
Mexican state of Tamaulipas, right near the United States border, and headed
towards the Corpus Christi area. The trip was short but daring. These smugglers
reportedly were operating their boat in the dark of the night without its lights
on and with multiple tanks of leaking fuel. There were eight unauthorized
passengers onboard. Along with the human cargoes, the Customs and Border
Patrol officers also discovered 10 bundles of marijuana wrapped in plastic,
weighing 530 pounds. There has been an increase of reports on overlapping
activities between drug traffickers and migrant smugglers.
Migrant Smuggling Data and Research:
A global review of the emerging evidence base
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