Reconsidering the human smuggler (coyote). A center-periphery vision

Resumen

Nearly 2.5 million irregular migrants hired a human smuggler in 2016 with a profit of US$ 5.5-7 billion. Smugglers not only transport people illegally but also are frequently associated with other illegal activities, which has concerned international organizations as well as nation-states for decades. Despite human smuggling being an illegal activity, some scholars, based on the notion of social capital, argue that it may be a legitimate (Sanchez 2017; Spener 2009) and even developmental strategy (Spener 2009). Studying the northeast border of Mexico, Spener describes a “Clandestine-Crossing” smuggler, who comes from the community of the migrant, does not search for financial advantage, and mostly engages in exchanges of social capital. In this article, we examine if a type of social coyote is identifiable using the Mexican survey Encuestas sobre Migración en la Frontera Norte; if in Mexico the distribution of social capital in hiring a coyote is similar by sex and region; and if a center-periphery analysis contributes to better explaining the irregular migration on the Mexican north border than social capital theory. Our conclusions are that we can identify a Clandestine-Crossing coyote, but such a coyote charges a high price, there are regional differences in the use of social capital, the coyote-migrant relationship is not a developmental policy, and it is possible to better understand, and solve, the problem of irregular migration using center-periphery analysis.