Torsten Feys
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781927869000
- eISBN:
- 9781786944443
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781927869000.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Maritime History
This chapter offers a reassessment of the role of agents in the migration process, as it considers them the core link between migrant and shipping company. It deconstructs the layers of the agent ...
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This chapter offers a reassessment of the role of agents in the migration process, as it considers them the core link between migrant and shipping company. It deconstructs the layers of the agent network with a breakdown of the terminology used between brokers, expedients, agents, and runners; compares European and American migration legislation; analyses the American network in depth - services, pressures, and advertising strategies; and highlights the significance of an agent’s ethnicity when handling migration issues. It concludes that agents played a much larger role than merely organising the trip from destination to destination, they were akin to the economic and social gatekeepers of America and all the prospects it held.Less
This chapter offers a reassessment of the role of agents in the migration process, as it considers them the core link between migrant and shipping company. It deconstructs the layers of the agent network with a breakdown of the terminology used between brokers, expedients, agents, and runners; compares European and American migration legislation; analyses the American network in depth - services, pressures, and advertising strategies; and highlights the significance of an agent’s ethnicity when handling migration issues. It concludes that agents played a much larger role than merely organising the trip from destination to destination, they were akin to the economic and social gatekeepers of America and all the prospects it held.
