A case is made for treating international migration as a global business which has both legitimate and illegitimate sides. The migration business is conceived as a system of institutionalized networks with complex profit and loss accounts, including a set of institutions, agents and individuals each of which stands to make a commercial gain. The article focuses on migrant trafficking, the core of the illegitimate business.Migrant trafficking, a subject of growing political concern, is recognized by migration experts and policy makers to be undermining international collaborative efforts to produce ordered migration flows. Trafficking, widely condemned for its inhuman practices and links to international organized crime, is also believed to be increasing in scale and sophistication.Our model conceives of trafficking as an intermediary part of the global migration business facilitating movement of people between origin and destination countries. The model is divided into three stages: the mobilization and recruitment of migrants; their movement en route; and their insertion and integration into labour markets and host societies of destination countries. At each stage of the model we describe the trafficking business, its systematic organization and its methods of operation: its inputs and outputs; its use of a set of common geographical routes; its methods of smuggling migrants; its systems of planning and information-gathering; and its division into a set of technical and organizational tasks. This division of roles is seen as critical for trafficking's survival.The model also suggests how through the existence of common routes and networks of contacts, traffickers increasingly channel migrants, thus deter-468 Salt and Stein mining the geography of movement. We also demonstrate the model with available evidence on trafficking mainly in and across Europe and attempt thereby to show how trafficking operates both theoretically and in practice.Our conceptualization of trafficking as a business has important implications for the study of migration and for policy makers. For the former, trafficking blurs meaningful conceptual distinctions between legal and illegal migration. For the latter, trafficking presents new challenges in the management and control of migration flows across borders. In particular it suggests the need to look at immigration controls in new ways, placing sharper focus on the institutions and vested interests involved rather than on the migrants themselves.

The present paper provides a research review of recent literature on international migration by the highly skilled. Its principal aim is to identify the themes which are being discussed, and suggest where research into the subject might best proceed. The paper begins by examining the existing framework for study. Definitions and data availability are discussed, followed by a consideration of theoretical perspectives and their attendant methodologies and models. This is followed by a review of the two most important perspectives in extant research, economic and socio‐cultural, leading into a review of what is known about the geography of migration by the highly skilled. The systems described are subject to a process of management which is discussed in the penultimate section. Finally, the paper proposes future directions for research which involve a reconceptualisation of migration by the highly skilled as one element in the international movement of expertise. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The article reviews the empirical evidence for trafficking and human smuggling in Europe. It argues that a market for irregular migration services has emerged, in which the mechanisms and forms of organization are still relatively unknown. Irregular migrants using these services are exposed both to unscrupulous service providers and to the immigration and policing authorities, thereby generating a dependence on safeguards provided by the trafficking networks. Thus a symbiosis has developed between trafficker and trafficked.The enormous interest and concern for trafficking and human smuggling in governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, in the media and popular opinion, is running ahead of theoretical understanding and factual evidence. This has implications for policy measures designed to combat trafficking and human smuggling, which may not work and also have unintended side effects.The article begins with a discussion of the main conceptual and definitional issues confronting researchers and politicians. This is followed by an assessment of the main theoretical approaches that have been developed and an evaluation of current statistical knowledge.Information on the organizational structure of trafficking organizations is then reviewed, followed by a summary of the characteristics of migrants involved, based on empirical studies that have been carried out. The article concludes by indicating some of the main research priorities.

This article is about how UK‐based transnational corporations source expertise and move highly skilled people among their sites. TNCs rely heavily on their internal labour markets for skills. We examine patterns and trends in the ways that TNCs in two sectors, aerospace and extractives, dynamically orchestrate and deploy their networks of expertise internationally to address the demands of different markets. We chart the types of mobility that exist, identify how and why they are used, and explore some of the institutional, industrial, organizational and technological factors that influence these trends. We show that different types of mobility play distinct roles in organizations. Companies respond to mobility calls from diverse stimuli by linking together mobility options into portfolios of moves that represent negotiated responses to industrial and individual requirements.

"This article seeks to show that the migration process for highly skilled workers in contemporary Europe is part of the structuring of European business. It focuses on the employer's perspective and role in articulating movement, using data from various official sources as well as survey evidence from the United Kingdom. It suggests that the increasing importance of this form of mobility is related to the process of internationalization by large employers and that the particular form of movement is dependent on the evolution of corporate business."