IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v676y2018i1p152-173.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Makes a Good Human Smuggler? The Differences between Satisfaction with and Recommendation of Coyotes on the U.S.-Mexico Border

Author

Listed:
  • Jeremy Slack
  • Daniel E. Martínez

Abstract

This article draws on a unique dataset of more than eleven hundred postdeportation surveys to examine migrants’ experiences with coyotes (human smugglers) along the U.S.-Mexico border. Our focus is on migrants’ satisfaction with the services provided by their most recent smuggler and whether they would be willing to put family or friends in contact with that person. We find a distinct difference between people’s expectations for their own migratory experience compared to what they would be willing to subject loved ones to. Expectations of comfort and safety are decidedly low for oneself; but for loved ones, a more expressive, qualitative assessment shapes their willingness to recommend a coyote: qualities such as trustworthiness, honesty, comportment, and treatment come to the fore. News coverage focusing on the deaths of smuggled migrants often portrays coyotes as nefarious and exploitative, but the migrant-smuggler relationship is much more complex than suggested by these media accounts. We provide empirical insight into the factors associated with successful, satisfactory, and safe relationships between migrants and their guides.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeremy Slack & Daniel E. Martínez, 2018. "What Makes a Good Human Smuggler? The Differences between Satisfaction with and Recommendation of Coyotes on the U.S.-Mexico Border," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 676(1), pages 152-173, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:676:y:2018:i:1:p:152-173
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716217750562
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716217750562
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716217750562?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paolo Campana & Federico Varese, 2013. "Cooperation in criminal organizations: Kinship and violence as credible commitments," Rationality and Society, , vol. 25(3), pages 263-289, August.
    2. Wayne A. Cornelius, 2001. "Death at the Border: Efficacy and Unintended Consequences of US Immigration Control Policy," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 27(4), pages 661-685, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthew Ward & Daniel E Martinez, 2015. "Know Your Enemy: How Unauthorized Repatriated Migrants Learn About and Perceive Anti-Immigrant Mobilization in the United States," Migration Letters, Migration Letters, vol. 12(2), pages 137-151, May.
    2. David, Blight, 2020. "Trends of International Migration since Post-World War II," MPRA Paper 106307, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2020.
    3. Maoyong Fan & Susan Gabbard & Anita Alves Pena & Jeffrey M. Perloff, 2015. "Why Do Fewer Agricultural Workers Migrate Now?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 97(3), pages 665-679.
    4. Giacomo Battiston, 2022. "Rescue on Stage: Border Enforcement and Public Attention in the Mediterranean Sea," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0292, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    5. Jill M Williams, 2020. "Affecting migration: Public information campaigns and the intimate spatialities of border enforcement," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(7-8), pages 1198-1215, November.
    6. Claudio Deiana & Vikram Maheshri & Giovanni Mastrobuoni, 2020. "Migrants at Sea: Unintended Consequences of Search and Rescue Operations," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 636, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    7. Bożena, Chrząstowska, 2018. "The Effectiveness of Migration Policies," MPRA Paper 106128, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2018.
    8. Nicole Filion & Andrew Fenelon & Michel Boudreaux, 2018. "Immigration, citizenship, and the mental health of adolescents," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-12, May.
    9. Ibrahim Sirkeci, 2009. "Transnational mobility and conflict," Migration Letters, Migration Letters, vol. 6(1), pages 3-14, April.
    10. Antonella, Barbarito, 2019. "Trends of International Migration since Post-World War II," MPRA Paper 106133, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2019.
    11. Kabir, Kayenat & Keeney, Roman M., 2017. "Modeling undocumented migration from Mexico to the United States – A structural examination of available information and options for analysis," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258376, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Catino, Maurizio, 2015. "Mafia rules. The role of criminal codes in mafia organizations," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 536-548.
    13. Holmes, Seth M., 2013. "“Is it worth risking your life?”: Ethnography, risk and death on the U.S.–Mexico border," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 153-161.
    14. Richard L. Johnson, 2021. "Reversing Channels and Unsettling Binaries: Rethinking Migration and Agrarian Change under Expanded Border and Immigration Enforcement," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-19, February.
    15. Marquez Alcala, German A., 2016. "Examining the Labor Market Consequences of Endogenous Low-skill Migration with a Market-based Immigration Policy," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 236275, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    16. Ricardo Martén & Camillo Boano, 2022. "Checkpoint urbanism: Violent infrastructures and border stigmas in the Juárez border region," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(3), pages 526-547, February.
    17. Erin R. Hamilton & Jo Mhairi Hale, 2016. "Changes in the Transnational Family Structures of Mexican Farm Workers in the Era of Border Militarization," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(5), pages 1429-1451, October.
    18. Michael, Owiso, 2018. "International Migration since Post-World War II: Trends and Determinants," MPRA Paper 106280, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2018.
    19. Wayne A. Cornelius & Idean Salehyan, 2007. "Does border enforcement deter unauthorized immigration? The case of Mexican migration to the United States of America," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 1(2), pages 139-153, June.
    20. Davis, Jason, 2018. "School enrollment effects in a South-South migration context," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 157-164.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:676:y:2018:i:1:p:152-173. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.