The social, political, social and economic situation of each State may influence the choice of their own nationals to migrate (read more on drivers of migration in Chapter The global context of international migration and in Chapter Migration and development). The perfect environment for smuggling is created in situations where legal channels are unavailable to prospective migrants, or too expensive or complicated for them to access. As restrictions on movement and entry become increasingly severe, demand for smuggling services to circumvent them rises, strengthening the market for smugglers and driving up the fees they can command (Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2018: 14; Mixed Migration Centre [MMC], 2018: 105, 109).
People who are smuggled represent a cross section of humanity, with different reasons for being smuggled. Many opt to use smugglers in order to seek out opportunities for work or study in wealthier countries than their own. Others rely on smuggling services to flee natural disasters, violence, conflict or persecution, having no access to regular migration channels to do so. Increased insecurities in origin countries are met with a corresponding increase in demand for the services offered by smugglers (further discussed in The smuggling of migrants during crises).
For many migrants, the risks involved in undertaking smuggling journeys are outweighed by the potential gains; even along the most dangerous routes, smuggled migrants still expect to successfully arrive in the destination country. Where migrants lack financial resources, they are also highly vulnerable to low-cost, high-risk smuggling routes, and vulnerable to unscrupulous smugglers who may take advantage of their desperation to extort or exploit them. Some people seeking the help of smugglers to gain illegal entry have criminal motives or seek to gain illegal entry for nefarious reasons. But the primary threat that arises from the crime of migrant smuggling does not come from the people being smuggled. Rather, it comes from the organized criminals who are smuggling them. In many countries, the business of migrant smuggling generates significant income for the local population in the absence of other income sources, with smugglers providing a service to communities for whom movement is socially and culturally normal (Reitano and Kaysser, 2018: 66; Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2018: 13; MMC, 2018: 106, 116). Moreover, while media reports tend to focus on the dangers posed by smugglers, in some cases, smuggling services are sought by migrants not only to evade detection, but also to increase the probability of safe travel through treacherous parts of the journey, such as overland trails in the jungles of Southeast Asia, and deserts in Africa and the Americas (UNODC, 2018b: 25).