quote 27 May
The walkout in Pascagoula addresses [Wendy] Chapkis’ concern about the distinction between “violated female innocents” and “illegal male migrants.” It is also worth noting because it challenges the historical conflation between trafficking and prostitution, and is part of a growing trend of exploited immigrant workers in the U.S. using the language of trafficking to describe what is wrong with their situation. This particular campaign also challenges another fundamental assumption imbedded in the anti-trafficking framework, by naming Signal International and the two recruiting agencies as the primary culprits. The policy and legal discourses on trafficking have tended to highlight evil individual criminals, or “networks organized crime,” as the main perpetrators of human trafficking. (That a major anti-trafficking initiative in India is being coordinated by the United National Office on Drugs and Crime is a case in point.) Instead, this case highlights the role of corporations working transnationally to maximize their profits by exacerbating economic vulnerability and legal dependency among potential workers.

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