While irregular migration is a global phenomenon, the mechanisms that allow for it to occur have received scant scholarly attention. Depictions of irregular migrants from war-torn and economically deprived regions ‘flooding’ refugee camps, riding atop of trains, and drowning in vast seas have effectively depicted contemporary migration flows as unprecedented, massive, and dangerous crises.
Portrayed as stretching thin the resources of nation-states and undermining their security, irregular migration has incited anti-immigrant sentiment, prompted voters to favour strict migration policies, and secured support for increasing border surveillance and controls. Within this context, irregular migration facilitated by human smuggling has consistently been depicted as a threat to global capitals worldwide.
Human smuggling has become almost part and parcel of the nation-state security framework. Official narratives of smuggling argue that complex, transnational criminal networks are responsible for the precarious and risky journeys migrants and asylum seekers embark upon – and for their economic, sexual, emotional and physical suffering and exploitation.
