MIGRANT SMUGGLING AND DEMAND OF LABOR

Abstract

This paper, based on a qualitative methodology that includes in-depth interviews with 132 migrant smugglers, conducted between April 2008 and May 2013, arises from the following hypothesis: migrant smuggling between Mexico and the United States is a business that is not sustained anymore by the social capital of the migrant community but by the determination of United States employers to obtain cheap and disciplined labor, and concludes that the majority migrant smuggling networks are working principally for employers in the United States.