What are the intended/unintended consequences of anti-smuggling and anti-trafficking policies?
Border restrictions create markets for border brokers.
Anti-smuggling policies are based on the assumption that border brokers create risks for migrants. Aspiring migrants who give money to border brokers, however, understand migration to be intrinsically risky. To minimise these risks, aspiring migrants from Cameroon ask two questions: does a border broker have powerful connections (often with state agents); and does a border broker have the genuine intention to enable a border crossing? Anti-smuggling and anti-trafficking policies, however, assume that border brokers are entirely separated from state actors and that relations between brokers and aspiring migrants are guided exclusively by rational and individualistic market principles.
