MIGRANT'S CARAVANS, HUMAN SMUGGLING ECONOMIES AND SURPLUS LABOUR

Abstract

The objective of this article, based in interviews with ten migrant smugglers from the northeast of Mexico, is to examine the effect of the caravanization of migration in the human smuggling industry. We conclude that migrant smuggling networks operating in northeastern Mexico have been benefitted from the caravans, because the number of migrants arriving at the border has increased. Migrants of the caravans lack financial resources to pay smugglers fees; but they can offer unpaid surplus labour time as a means of payment. Women, recruited into the sex industry, are the most valuable for human smuggling economies because they produce in a less time of work the value of their wages.