Migrant Smuggling Data and Research

Most policymakers as well as border security agency administrators are
aware of the growing dependence of unauthorized migrants on smugglers,
but little research is available to study the complexity of migrant smuggling
(including its variations and interconnections with other migration dynamics). In
an election year and with inflammatory statements made against unauthorized
migrants, it is easy to find simplistic proposals and one-dimensional policies that
claim to produce drastic outcomes. Few anticipate any possible consequences,
such as subjecting migrants to extreme exploitation, violence and even death.
Migrant smuggling rises and falls in response to the needs in the market of
irregular migration. Many factors seem to influence the direction of unauthorized
immigration, from broad labour market conditions to tightening of border
control. In the past decade or so, irregular migration from Mexico to the United
States seemed to march on its own beat, a steady decline, irrespective of the
fluctuations of the labour and economic conditions in the United States. Illegal
migration seems to have its own barometers that measure the informal economy
of the host country and responds to a far more complex set of conditions than
mere economic factors. Parasitic to this irregular migration, migrant smugglers
will most likely fluctuate also depending on the demand by unauthorized
migrants for their services. Efforts to control unauthorized immigration create
and maintain a marketplace where enterprising agents with the right social
connections and resources converge to provide smuggling services. Once in
business, human smugglers can only hope for more clients and thus may have
indeed become a major contributor to sustained illegal migration.
Similar to other illicit enterprises, transnational migrant smuggling
activities expand and contract in response to political and social conditions that
interfere with the illicit marketplace. In general, the greater a destination country
attempts to reduce its influx of unauthorized migrants, the greater the need for
“professional” assistance provided by these human smugglers. Entrepreneurs of
diverse backgrounds and resources find one another, motivated by a common
desire to make money, to form transient alliances or networks, and enable
fee-paying migrants to move successively from one way station to the next.
Along the way, most migrants probably arrive uneventfully while others fall
prey to unscrupulous vendors. Unfortunately, in North America, there is little
systematic research on how immigrants seek out smugglers, and how smugglers
form alliances and distribute profits. Moreover, as border security becomes
tightened, smuggling channels are limited for migrant smuggling as well as drug
trafficking. Is it inevitable that the reduced money-making opportunities will
lead to coalition of human smugglers and drug traffickers? Little is known about
the social organization of human smugglers both as a social phenomenon and as
a criminal enterprise.
Migrant Smuggling Data and Research:
A global review of the emerging evidence base
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