Becoming a Smuggler

Migration and Violence at EU External Borders

Bibliographic Data

ID3948926
AuthorsKarolina Augustova (Politics and International Relations Department, Aston University School of Languages and Social Sciences, Birmingham, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, corresponding author), Helena Carrapico (0000-0003-4623-9482, Northumbria University), Jelena Obradovic-Wochnik (0000-0003-0850-2737, Politics and International Relations Department, Aston University School of Languages and Social Sciences, Birmingham, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
Year2023
Volume28
Issue2
Pages619-640
Publication date2023-03-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14650045.2021.1961223
OpenAlexW3189526874
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited53

Migrants’ involvement in smuggling increases alongside restricted cross-border movement and violent borders, yet this dynamic is usually examined from migrants’ position as clients. In this article, we move away from migrants and smugglers as two separate roles and question migrants’ aspirations to and experiences of resorting to smuggling networks as workers in the context of EU land borders, where direct violence is used daily to fight cross-border crime. By doing so, we move further the examination of fluid relations in smuggling provisions and the way they are intertwined with care and exploitation, as shaped and circumscribed by violent borders. The article illustrates the intersections between border violence and migrants’ active involvement in smuggling by drawing on the case study of an anonymised Border Town and multi-site, multi-author fieldwork from Serbia and Bosnia. By questioning migrants’ experiences of shifting roles from clients to service providers, and by taking into account their work in smuggling provision, we show that, in a situation of protracted vulnerability orchestrated by border violence, state and law enforcement, the categories – “migrant” and “smugglers” – can blur

Border Security · Business · Computer security · Criminology · Enforcement · Ethnology · Geography · Irregular migration · Law enforcement · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Sex work and related issues

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