Research: Deportation, Circular Migration and Organized Crime

Requirement Summary

Circular migration is typically defined as the periodic movement of a migrant worker (and, oftentimes, family members) between a home and a host country, usually for the purpose of employment.  However, circular migration can also occur between other regions within a country, such as between rural and urban areas.  There are a number of benefits that may be associated with circular migration patterns, including gains in financial capital, human capital, and social capital. 

Circular migration is generally conceived of as being voluntary.  However, the cyclic pattern of movement of individuals from a home region to a host region can also be mediated, regulated and triggered by actions of the state.  Most often the periodicity and conditions under which the circular migration takes place is related to visa and labour policies.  In other circumstances, the movement may also be related to factors such as the deportation or inadmissibility of individuals due to criminality.

Criminological literature has identified that various types of migration – between incarceration and freedom, between rural and urban areas, between countries – has resulted in social processes through which gangs and criminal organizations are formed or change their structure.  Examples of migration being related to gang formation include: prison gangs developing into street gangs; inner city gangs establishing themselves on-reserve; the soggiorno obbligato of mafiosi from Italy’s South to its North; and the deportation of Los Angeles delinquents leading to the formation of mara gangs in Central America.  

While there is an established literature on a variety of gang-related migrations related to incarceration and regional movements within a country, the study of how international migration affects the milieu of organized crime  has only emerged over the last few years.  This literature generally focuses on very particular organized crime problems related to deportation or circular migration, such as Jamaican posses or Salvadoran maras.  There is also an emergent literature on the impact of patterns of circular migration on family structure, as well as on youth delinquency.  Combining the insights and examples from these various literatures could result in useful generalizations about the social processes surrounding deportation and circular migration which lead to organized crime problems.

Project Objectives

The objectives of this project are to provide a summary of the literature on the relationship between international circular migration patterns, deportation from one country to another and the influence of these movements on the formation or structure of criminal organizations.  

A minimum of three case studies shall serve as examples for the purposes of illustrating the relationship between migration and organized crime.  These case studies will include Jamaica, a Central American country (El Salvador, Honduras and/or Guatemala) and Guyana.  The contractor is required to relate the case study illustrations to examples of migration and criminality within Canada.   

Examples of research questions to be answered, which will be refined in consultation with the Project Authority, include the following:

1.	What patterns of circular migration have historically been associated with the emergence of an organized crime problem A) in Canada and B) in the country of origin of the migrant?

2.	What features of the migration experience (e.g., family structure, demographics, immigration status, criminal justice responses, etc.) are associated with the emergence of organized crime?  What, if any, particular social process or mechanism leads from a particular problematic migration experience to the emergence of organized crime? 

3.	How, and why, do transnational organized crime threats to Canada evolve in the context of removal by the state of persons deemed inadmissible due to criminality or deported for another reason?

3.	Period of Work

The period of the Contract is from date of contract award to March 3, 2014.


4.	Evaluation Process and Selection Methodology

Basis of selection – Highest combined score of technical points (70%) and financial points (30%). Detailed in the RFP

5.	Contracting Authority

Nancy Savaria
Contracting and Procurement Section
Public Safety Canada
340 Laurier Avenue West, 1st Floor Mailroom
Ottawa ON  K1A 0P9

Tel:  613-990-2614
Fax: 613-954-1871
contracting@ps-sp.gc.ca 

The Contracting Authority is responsible for all matters of a contractual nature.