Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives

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

Table of Contents:
Contents: Acknowledgments Introduction - David Kyle and Rey Koslowski PART I. Historical and Conceptual Approaches 1 Smuggling the State Back In: Agents of Human Smuggling Reconsidered David Kyle and John Dale 2 The Smuggling of Asylum Seekers into Western Europe: Contradictions, Conundrums, and Dilemmas Khalid Koser 3 Pre-Cold War Traffic in Sexual Labor and Its Foes: Some Contemporary Lessons Eileen Scully 4 The Transformation of Migrant Smuggling across the U.S.-Mexican Border Peter Andreas PART II Case Studies: Mexico, Russia, and China 5 Smuggling Migrants through South Texas: Challenges Posed by Operation Rio Grande David Spencer 6 Russian Transnational Organized Crime and Human Trafficking James O. Finckenauer 7 From Fujian to New York: Understanding the New Chinese Immigration Zai Liang and Wenzhen Ye 8 The Social Organization of Chinese Human Smuggling Ko-Lin Chin 9 Impact of Chinese Human Smuggling on the American Labor Market Peter Kwong PART III The Politics of Human Smuggling 10 The Law at a Crossroads: The Construction of Migrant Women Trafficked into Prostitution Nora V. Demleitner 11 Immigrants, Smuggling, and Threats to Social Order in Japan H. Richard Friman 12 The Sanctioning of Unauthorized Migration and Alien Employment Mark J. Miller 13 Economic Globalization, Human Smuggling, and Global Governance Rey Koslowski List of Contributors Index

About the Author :
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.

Review :
The book's wide comparative breadth, the authors' theoretical sophistication, the up-to-date references and especially the contemporary and intensifying topic of the worldwide political struggle about migration (both legal and illegal), make this book a notable accomplishment... a must-read for all civic-minded citizens, interested scholars and, especially, required reading for politicians. -- Katalin Fabian International Migration Review The book is significant because it challenges and reassesses many widely held views on controversial issues and it should change current thinking on the topic... Stimulating, informative and informed. -- Ronald Skeldon Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 2003