Brokerage in Cross-Border Mobility: Social Mechanisms and the (Re)Production of Social Inequalities

Abstract

Brokerage is an essential yet understudied function in social life. In one of the classics in the field of sociology, Georg Simmel differentiated three types of the "third" which help to analyse brokerage: the disinterested mediator or arbitrator, tertius gaudens and divide et impera. Studies that conceptualise traffickers and smugglers as brokers are extremely rare. Scholars lack a typology which can serve as a basis for comparative research. To advance scholarship on brokerage this article seeks to develop a conceptual-typological matrix by setting out to explore three questions: Why does brokerage exist? What kind of social mechanism is brokerage? What are the implications of brokerage for social inequalities and equalities? The analysis concludes with the consequences of different types of brokerage for the (re)production of social inequalities.

The Education‐Migration Industry: International Students, Migration Policy and the Question of Skills

“…Because of the complexity of migration rules and regulations, and the frequent policy adjustments and interventions, intermediaries such as migration agents and brokers have slowly taken up a more prominent role in facilitating migration trajectories on a “for profit” basis (Garapich, ; Lindquist et al., : 11; Surak, : 2; Baas and Yeoh, ). Some would even argue that especially low‐skilled migrants no longer have a choice to seek the services of specialists to meet specific (application) requirements (Spaan and Hillmann, ; Faist, ; Kern and Müller‐Böker, ).…”

New directions in exploring the migration industries: introduction to special issue

“…With this starting point, a focus on migration industries enables us to gain vital insights related to the question why some people are able to transcend borders, while others remain involuntarily immobile in their countries of origin (Carling 2002) or get stuck in transit (Collyer 2007). As stated by Faist (2014), brokerage creates and perpetuates power asymmetries and social inequalities. Moreover, it helps us to understand how the migration industry provokes different experiences of mobility, as well as immobility, across lines of class, legal status, age and gender (Conlon 2011).…”

Migration decision-making and migration industry in the Indonesia–Malaysia corridor

“…Brokers have a varying degree of professionalism (Lindquist, Xiang, and Yeoh 2012) and many have been migrants themselves, having entered the migration brokerage business with varying motives, on a continuum from altruism, profit-seeking entrepreneurship to outright exploitation (trafficking) (Spaan 1999;Asis 2004;Molland 2012). The association between personal migrant networks and altruism on the one hand, versus migration brokerage and profit, on the other, is not straightforward and needs further scrutiny (Faist 2014). The modus operandi and profit extraction along gender lines can differentiate and therefore needs to be taken into account as well (Lindquist 2010).…”

“…Thus, the MI actors function as organisers and controllers of the migration flows, by determining conditions and setting boundaries for action (control). Brokerage creates and perpetuates power asymmetries and social inequalities (Faist 2014).…”