Smuggling Aliens Toward the Netherlands: the Role of Human Smugglers and Transnational Networks

Abstract

Almost eight decades ago, Stockwell’s article “Our Oldest National Problem ” was published in the American Journal of Sociology. A US Immigration Service employee at the time, he describes the main elements of the 1924 Immigration Act, including the “successful formation of the border patrol ” along the Canadian and Mexican borders (1927: 750). He presents a vivid account of the “lawless element ” that has to be dealt with: people who have “less compunction in the taking of human life than in violating the laws of the country ” (ibid.: 751-52). Simultaneously, Stockwell notes several other channels of illegal entry such as the “seaman route ” used by alien seamen who desert ship after arriving at an American port and stay. Others immigrants go to Cuba and from there come as “contraband aliens ” with sailing ships or motorboats. Stockwell also refers to entering the country by evading immigration laws, e.g. the “student class entry ” used by aliens to take advantage of the unrestricted entrance options for students, but without ever matriculating. The author mentions the “tourist route ” used by visitors to the United States who as nonimmigrants are exempt from the quota and become permanent residents by staying past their departure date (ibid.: 752–54).