Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 05/2012

The Migration Industry and Future Directions for Migration Policy

Ninna Nyberg Sørensen, Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen

April 2012

Danish Institute for International Studies

Abstract

Over the last few decades a host of new business opportunities have emerged that capitalize on migrants' desire to move as well as on governments’ attempts to manage migratory flows. The businesses involved in this ‘migration industry’ range from small migrant entrepreneurs using their own experience to assist others making the journey, to big multinational companies who compete in the booming market of government contracts to carry out migration management. The commercialization of international migration is evident at every step of the migratory process and takes place in virtually every country of emigration, transit and immigration.