On 3 December 2024, the European Research Council announced the winners of its 2024 Consolidator Grant Competition. Among the proposals selected for funding is EUI Assistant Professor Luigi Achilli’s five-year project UNDERGOV, which will investigate the role of transnational criminal groups in migration governance.
In the field of international mobility, the operations of migrant smugglers, human traffickers, and drug traffickers have drawn increased global attention, yet academic research on the intersection between migration management and crime remains limited. When discussing phenomena that require transnational governance, such as migration, crime is often perceived as an external or oppositional element, rarely acknowledged as a significant player with a key role. This project challenges conventional approaches by inverting the perspective, positioning crime at the core of migration governance.
“Social studies often perceive criminal groups as a social illness, peripheral actors, or simply forms of resistance to an unjust system of migration governance (…) However, if we think migration is steered only by states and other licit actors, we are losing a big part of the picture,” explained Achilli.
Achilli argues that the role of criminal actors often goes beyond mere disruption, actively shaping migration governance and, at times, playing a critical role in the functioning and reproduction of its legal frameworks. This dynamic can also lead to forms of symbiosis between state actors and criminal networks, as they interact with various stakeholders.
“Rather than viewing criminal groups as global challenges for various actors to tackle, we should acknowledge them as pivotal actors influencing these challenges”, he added.
The project will employ ethnographic and social network analysis methodologies across various regions of the world to produce an edited volume and an illustrated book aimed at introducing a new conceptualisation of crime and migration to the general public. Additional research outputs include several journal articles and a travelling multimedia exhibition, among others, aimed at contributing to social anthropology and migration studies while addressing a significant gap in our understanding of transnational governance.
UNDERGOV draws from Achilli’s extensive ten-year research on migrant smuggling and human trafficking, which has deepened his understanding of the complex interplay between these criminal actors, migrants, and other crucial participants in migration governance.
Read his latest article, ‘The missing link: the role of criminal groups in migration governance’, published this year in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
Luigi Achilli is a Part-time Assistant Professor at the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies. He holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in political anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). His research and writing focus on irregular migration, transnational crime, refugee studies, political engagement and nationalism, and the Palestinian issue.