Synopsis
During the past decade, human smuggling across national borders grew from a low-level border crossing activity in a handful of countries to a diverse multibillion dollar business spanning the entire globe. New laws in several states, the creation and expansion of new enforcement and management agencies with enormous budgets, and multilateral programs around the world are currently being developed to combat human smuggling. But how well do we understand it? This volume explores the global dimensions of human smuggling in several forms and regions, examining its deep social, economic, and cultural roots and its broad political consequences.
Part I discusses the sociohistorical context and contemporary diversity of human smuggling of migrants,
asylum-seekers, and those who are tricked into slavery, including the conflicting role of states and corrupt state officials as contributing to the problem. In Part II, the authors present high profile case
studies that include U.S.-Mexican border smuggling, the international business of trafficking women from
the former Soviet Union, and the origins and social organization of human smuggling as a global business
from China and Southeast Asia. In Part III, contributors examine the politics of human smuggling,
looking more closely at the legal construction of victimized women trafficked into slavery, the social
construction of smuggled immigrants as threats to the social order, and the sanctioning of unauthorized
employment of illegal immigrants.
Contributors: Peter Andreas, Reed College Ko-Lin Chin, Rutgers University, Newark John Dale,
University of California, Davis Nora Demleitner, St. Mary's University James O. Finckenauer, National
Institute of Justice H. Richard Friman, Marquette University Khalid Koser, University College, London Rey Koslowski, Rutgers University, Newark Peter Kwong, Hunter College David Kyle, University of
California, Davis Zai Liang, City University of New York Mark J. Miller, University of Delaware Eileen Scully, Princeton University David Spener, Trinity University Wenzhen Ye, Xiamen University
Author Biography:
David Kyle is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, Davis. Rey Koslowski is an assistant professor of political science at Rutgers University, Newark.
"Illegal immigration and those who profit from it are topics of great interest to the general public and
scholars alike. In this careful scholarly examination of the subject, the authors place the issues in
historical and comparative context, examining the emergence of international law and a global moral order
of human rights while also exploring the political and economic aspects of the illicit traffic in people Although the literature on migration is huge, this is the only scholarly book that comprehensively focuses on the topic of human smuggling."—Chris Chase-Dunn, University of California, Riverside