Mass migration
as a travel business
Migration travel today
also: Migration (in general) today
Europe's refugee crisis (includes
Ukraine)
Contemporary refugees: outside Europe, N. America and
general
Trans-Mediterranean movement, migration by air: see below
Migrant
smuggling, see
here
(CNN article and video, 17 April 2023)
66 mile gap in Pan-American Highway is a 5 day trek through mountainous rainforest, smuggler cartel charges $400 minimum per person, 250 thous. crossed in 2022, 90 thous. 1st 3 months of 2023.
Related CNN documentary: "The Trek, A Migrant Trail to America" (The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper)
Canada increases immigration loan size to C$15,000
(IRCC (Canadian government) 23 November 2021)
Loan maximum had been C$10 thous. These
loans can used "to cover costs of transportation" booked through IOM (International Organiz. for Migration). Per a 2016 study (Caldi, Simon Fraser), this loan program began in 1951; as of 2015,
C$13 mil. was granted annually, C$700 thou. forgiven, total debt outstanding C$38 mil., 98% of recepients were refugees and average loan taken C$3 thou..
Texas and Arizona busing southern border migrants to Washington DC (Forbes, July, 2022) Texas pays over $1400 per migrant bused to Washington (KXAS-TV).
US-Mexico border surge of 2020-21 (BBC, 20 March, 2021)
Air travel costs to USA: sharp decline 2014-17,
level in 2018
The costs of transnational migration as of 2014: recruitment,
relocation, remittances (Migration News, April 2014)
International migration statistics (UN)
Migrants camped out on international border between Guatemala and Mexico (LA Times, 21 October, 2018)
Mexico cracks down at southern border (New York Times, 24 Jan, 2020)
"New hard line posture on USA-bound caravan
from Honduras: lure of
possible employment for those who chose to enter legally; pepper spray, detention and deportation for those who did not."
Cameroon to North America via Darien Gap (BBC video, 12 Sept, 2019)
"One of the world's most dangerous jungles, full of drug traffickers, thieves, and poisonous animals."
"Young Palestinians leaving Gaza in droves"
(Economist 3 August, 2019)
Long closed, the Rafah crossing to Egypt
opened for 198 days in 2018. Some 24 thousand emigrated. The flow for 2019 is on track to be somewhat higher. Egypt caps daily outflow (whether permanent or back and forth) at 300 per day. Over
10,000 are now on a waiting list; bribes to jump the queue "start at $1000, almost triple the average monthly wage. Families sell land or gold to get their sons across. 'It's ironic. The main
issue, for a long time, was for Palestinians to return home. It was a dream' [says one]. 'Now we're paying money to leave.' "
"Portraits from a Caravan" (NY Times, 29 December, 2018)
Free flights for detained children (LA Times, 22 June, 2018)
Cape Verde to Maranhão: 35 days, 3000 miles in 12m catamaran
(Guardian, 22 May, 2018)
25 men crowded and exposed to sun. After 10 days only meager food rations, then mast and motor broke, water ran out.
Rescued by Brazilian fishermen.
Apprehending migrants in transit (Italy->France) through Switzerland
( Zürichsee Zeitung, pp. 18-19, 29 April 2016 [in German] )
Swiss border patrol searches train during "technical stop" in Brig. 15 men from Africa, Mideast, South Asia returned to Italy, under Schengen rules. Along this route, returns so far in 2016 are double that of the comparable period in 2015.
Costs of repatriating rejected asylum seekers from Switz. in 2015
( 20 Minuten (Zurich, Switzerland), p. 14, 10 February 2016 [in German] )
In 2015, authorities (Staatssekretariat für Migration) spent 8 Mio francs to
return c. 6 thou. by regular airline, and 2 Mio for 228 by charter. It is unclear what costs (if any) other than air
transport might be included in these sums.
Syrian migrants evacuated from Greek island of Kos, (Daily
Mail, 19 August, 2015)
Remapping Migration, Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Matías de Córdova (August, 2015)
Children migrants
through Mexico: "Between Borders" (NYT video)
Apprehensions at the US-Mexico are
lower in 2015 versus 2014, but have risen markedly within Mexico. Casa Allianz in Honduras offers temporary shelter and assistance to those intending to migrate and those caught and returned.
With smugglers fees having "doubled" to about "$8000," most recent teenage migrants travel on their own, solo or in small groups. Their chances are successfully reaching the USA are not
considered good, but families in Central America see "no other option" for escaping gang violence there. (7 October, 2015).
"La Bestia" train (Economist, 20 Sept, 2014, p. 5). A common
trans-migration route through Mexico in 2014: used less 2015-21.
Cubans to USA through Central America (Miami Herald, 18 Nov, 2015)
Apparently, recent Cuban liberalization does not include direct flights to USA.
Entering Europe via arctic bike rides (NY Times, 9 Oct, 2015)
By bus and train through Hungary (BBC, 29 Sep, 2015)
"Let refugees fly to Europe" (NY Times, 25 Sep, 2015)
"Europe's River of Migrants" (NY Times, 27 Aug, 2015)
New routes and travel methods Cuba-USA (NY Times, 10 Oct, 2014)
Expanded U.S. gateway? Tijuana Int'l Airport (NY Times, 19 Jan, 2014)
Contemporary unauthorized migration across the Mediterranean
(see also here and Europe's refugee conundra)
Africans crossing the Colla della Scala (Guardian Jan 2018)
Deadly Journey for Children: Central
Medit. Route (UNICEF-pdf, Feb 2017)
Libya-Italy flow Europe's worst migration crisis (Economist, 22 Oct, 2016)
Thousands of migrants rescued off Libya coast (BBC, 30 August, 2016)
Mediterranean: world's most lethal migratory route (Pop & Soc, April 2016)
A 1.5% annual probability of death during the sea crossing between 2000 and 2015
850 lost when boat from Libya capsizes (Wash. Post, 21 April, 2015)
Stowaways on Greek Ferry to Italy (Maritime Executive, 1 Jan, 2015)
"Murder in the Mediterranean" (NY Times, 19 Sept, 2014)
The 800 thousand and "Mare Nostrum" (NY Times, 19 May, 2014)
Half of illegal immigration to Europe is by boat (Pew, April 2014)
Migrant boat capsizes near Lampedusa (BBC, 4 Oct, 2013)
Pope meets migrants in the Mediterranean (BBC, 8 July, 2013)
Contemporary international migration by airplane (links):
"Novel solution to mass emigration" ("Authorities...are simply stopping their countrymen from getting on planes." Economist, 7 July 2018)
"Migration reshaping air transport" (Newairportinsider, 14 June 2017)
"Concession" airfares provided from Int'l Organization for Migration
Immigration and high airfares to the UK
Travel accounts of immigrants to New Zealand
Immigration to Australia by airplane
Immigration to Australia - travel deals
Special airfares for migrants to Australia
Other:
"How America's Visa Laws Affect the Travel Industry"
See also:
Contemporary migration processes
This page last updated 14 June,
2023