Migrant Smuggling in Asia - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

of ethnic homogeneity and closure are emphasised,
while other factors such as ethnic heterogeneity
and <strong>in</strong>ter-ethnic cooperation are neglected. �ey
argue that ideas of ‘ethnic specialization’ tend to
identify particular ethnic groups with particular
crimes. Based on an analysis of Ch<strong>in</strong>ese organised
crime, Soudijn and Kleemans argue that a focus on
social networks and situational context would o�er
improved <strong>in</strong>sights <strong>in</strong>to the operations of organised
crim<strong>in</strong>al groups. �eir analysis closely resonates
with the analysis by Zhang and Ch<strong>in</strong> (2004).
�ere is some research that notes the relevance
of prior experience of the migration process to
becom<strong>in</strong>g a smuggler, even if this experience is as
an ‘unsuccessful’ migrant. In other words, those
<strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> migrant smuggl<strong>in</strong>g may themselves have
had experience as smuggled migrants. For example,
research <strong>in</strong> the West African context notes that:
… a signi�cant number of the people who
make money from irregular migrants are
themselves irregular migrants, but ones who
have been <strong>in</strong> a s<strong>in</strong>gle location long enough to
acquire substantial local knowledge. Some of
the most experienced migrants are those who
have been <strong>in</strong>tercepted by the authorities <strong>in</strong>
the course of an earlier journey and forcibly
returned to West Africa, from where they
have recommenced their journey, sometimes
as many as three or four times. In this way,
they have built up expertise over a period of
sometimes several years, and they may turn
this expertise to pro�t by o�er<strong>in</strong>g services to
novice migrants. (UNODC, 2011, p. 30)
Similar observations are made <strong>in</strong> relation to the
way smugglers start their bus<strong>in</strong>esses <strong>in</strong> the Afghan-
Pakistan context (UNODC, 2010), and also <strong>in</strong>
relation to the Ch<strong>in</strong>ese migrant smugglers studied
<strong>in</strong> Fujian, Ch<strong>in</strong>a and the <strong>United</strong> States. For
example, Zhang (2008) notes that around one third
of the sample of smugglers he <strong>in</strong>terviewed entered
the smuggl<strong>in</strong>g bus<strong>in</strong>ess through ‘know<strong>in</strong>g others
already work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> that bus<strong>in</strong>ess’. �is <strong>in</strong>cluded
participants who <strong>in</strong>itially became acqua<strong>in</strong>ted with
smugglers through their own experiences of be<strong>in</strong>g
smuggled.
�e research con�rms that grey or black-market
economies may spr<strong>in</strong>g up around border areas,
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