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This article examines Dunki migration routes and experiences in Italy, revealing challenges and gaps between expectations and reality.
This article examines Dunki migration, an irregular migration route from Pakistan to Italy facilitated through intermediary networks. Based on in-depth interviews with 25 Pakistani irregular migrants in Bari, Italy, and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis in NVivo, the study applies the aspiration–capabilities framework and migration industry perspective. Findings reveal that migration decisions are driven by socially embedded aspirations, constrained legal pathways, and broker-mediated mobility, creating a substantial expectation–reality gap. Migrants experience debt, deception, dangerous journeys, legal insecurity, occupational downgrading, and social isolation. The study also identifies a step-migration pattern, contributing corridor-specific insights to irregular migration and migration governance debates.
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Zubair Hussain (2026) studied this question.
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