The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

Migrant Smuggling as a Collective Strategy and Insurance Policy: Views from the Margins

Dominant representations of contemporary smuggling and migration have created concerns of a “migration crisis” that is a threat to countries’ national security. This narrative represents migrant smugglers as ruthless and human smuggling as corrupt and evil. Using evidence collected from around the world from human smugglers and the migrants they smuggle, the research presented in this volume of The ANNALS shows how smugglers are often friends, relatives, or acquaintances of the migrants they help and are not motivated by profit alone. And immigrants, seeking to make better lives for themselves and their families, often rely on smugglers to succeed in clandestine border crossings. 

This volume of The ANNALS explores the complex relationship between human smugglers and the immigrants they smuggle. It also shows how government policies and immigration enforcement and control measures can be counterproductive, playing a role in creating the conditions that lead to human smuggling.