Who are the Smugglers? Ethnography on Mobility Facilitation Practices at the Sfax and Ventimiglia Borders

The proposed paper aims to address two figures commonly referred to in the Italian public debate as ‘human smugglers’ (trafficanti di esseri umani) and ‘gangmasters’ (caporali), considering them two key actors in migrant mobility and employment work. We will argue that the specific role of intermediaries of illegalized border crossing and labour recruitment is not only an effect of the prohibitionist or inefficacious system within which a large number of migrants are structurally embedded in Europe, but also that their actual work should be evaluated based on the heterogeneity of each concrete situation and, in some cases, may be interpreted according to the framework of moral economy. We believe that, from a materialist point of view on social relations, there is room, when certain circumstances are met, to define such services as a practice of ‘interested solidarity’ and not as one of mere profit-seeking.