Case Study

This chapter examines the case of clandestine human mobility, one of the biggest “hot button” political issues in government efforts to control unauthorized cross-border flows. It addresses questions such as Is global migration out of control? What’s the distinction between a migrant and a refugee? What is driving migration, and what are the main migrant source and destination countries? What is the size of the unauthorized migrant population? Who benefits from unauthorized migration? What is the difference between migrant smuggling and human trafficking? How and when did trafficking become such a big concern? Why aren’t migrant smuggling and human trafficking primarily treated as human rights issues? How reliable are the statistics on human trafficking? Why are unauthorized migrants hiring smugglers? Are smugglers predators or travel service providers? Who is involved in migrant smuggling? How is the business organized? What is the role of social media in migrant smuggling? Is migrant smuggling converging with other forms of cross-border crime? What is the role of corruption in migrant smuggling? How much do migrant smugglers charge? How do migrants pay for the journey? How important is fraudulent use of documents? What measures have destination countries taken to curb unauthorized migration? How has the European Union outsourced immigration controls? How has the United States outsourced immigration controls? What has been the impact of tighter enforcement on unauthorized migration? How new is unauthorized migration across the U.S.-Mexico border? Why has it become so dangerous for migrants to cross through Mexico? Has targeting employers been part of the enforcement effort?