An Anthropological Analysis of Human Trafficking and Smuggling of Migrants from the Western Balkans to the European Union
An Anthropological Analysis of Human Trafficking and Smuggling of Migrants from the Western Balkans to the European Union

Summary/Abstract: Especially from the 90s, globalization also showed its “dark side”, revealing the continuous increase of two criminal phenomena: smuggling of migrants and human trafficking. This contribution will analyze the author’s 8 years of fieldwork on the matter, from a standpoint drawn from her research trip from Italy to Bosnia and Herzegovina, through the countries of transit of Slovenia and Croatia, till her recent researches in FYROM/Republic of Macedonia. This paper will also describe the methodology used on the field, i.e. active participant observation, mimetic approach and transactional analysis. Finally, it will demonstrate to what extent anthropology can provide a decisive contribution in to thoroughly understand the holistic dimension of illegal and forced migrations, also by playing a pivotal role in the prevention phase in the country of origin and not only in the emergency one in the countries of destination.

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