Theoretical Approaches to Human Smuggling

Human smuggling is a global phenomenon which plays a central role in international migration. Core research on the topic has centered on understanding how human smuggling systems work and why they continue to operate.

In this DIIS working paper Theodore Baird reviews the literature on human smuggling, separating the various theoretical approaches to the topic into six distinct categories:

1) organizational or network approaches, partially based on criminological models;

2) mode of crossing and likelihood of capture models, including estimations of migration rates and flows;

3) migration industry and market approaches;

4) global historical comparisons;

5) human rights responses which are concerned with legal arguments; and

6) gender approaches.

The working paper is based on Baird’s extended fieldwork among migrants and smugglers in Turkey and Greece and represents sections from his PhD thesis which theorizes human smuggling as a system which is highly adaptive.

The working paper and thesis fall under the Migration Industry and Markets for Migration Management (MIMM) network, an international research group founded to explore the roles that various migration industry actors play in contemporary migration flows.