Bridget Anderson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199691593
- eISBN:
- 9780191752421
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199691593.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Migrant and labour rights activists have appealed to state commitments to fight trafficking as a means of advancing the rights of undocumented migrants. This chapter examines the implications of this ...
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Migrant and labour rights activists have appealed to state commitments to fight trafficking as a means of advancing the rights of undocumented migrants. This chapter examines the implications of this move. It traces the development of anti- trafficking policy in the UK, setting it in its international context. It argues that the presentation of the Victim of Trafficking (VoT) as embedded in social relations contrasts with the portrayal of the economic migrant as a self-interested rational actor. The focus on morality places the plight of the victim of trafficking beyond politics. The chapter concentrates on the case of trafficking as ‘modern day slavery’ to examine the implications of the usage of the language of slavery. ‘Trafficking’ is not only increasingly presented as a human rights focussed response to difficulties of enforcement, but has introduced the language of harm prevention into the heart of immigration control.Less
Migrant and labour rights activists have appealed to state commitments to fight trafficking as a means of advancing the rights of undocumented migrants. This chapter examines the implications of this move. It traces the development of anti- trafficking policy in the UK, setting it in its international context. It argues that the presentation of the Victim of Trafficking (VoT) as embedded in social relations contrasts with the portrayal of the economic migrant as a self-interested rational actor. The focus on morality places the plight of the victim of trafficking beyond politics. The chapter concentrates on the case of trafficking as ‘modern day slavery’ to examine the implications of the usage of the language of slavery. ‘Trafficking’ is not only increasingly presented as a human rights focussed response to difficulties of enforcement, but has introduced the language of harm prevention into the heart of immigration control.
Tiantian Zheng
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814785089
- eISBN:
- 9780814785102
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814785089.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines how sex workers have been affected by China's abolitionist policy, which conflates all sex work with forced prostitution and results in anti-trafficking campaigns that do little ...
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This chapter examines how sex workers have been affected by China's abolitionist policy, which conflates all sex work with forced prostitution and results in anti-trafficking campaigns that do little to improve the living conditions of the country's migrant women workers. Drawing on more than twenty months of fieldwork between 1999 and 2002 in Dalian involving approximately two hundred bar hostesses in ten karaoke bars, the chapter reveals how Chinese police and other state authorities collude with local officials and brothel managers, forcing sex workers into a state of constant vigilance. It also discusses the factors that facilitated the growth of Dalian's karaoke bar industry and the impact of China's anti-trafficking policy on hostesses working in karaoke bars by depicting them alternately as victims or deviants. Finally, it analyzes the perception of Dalian's sex workers, most of them rural migrants, that hostessing is the best option for social mobility.Less
This chapter examines how sex workers have been affected by China's abolitionist policy, which conflates all sex work with forced prostitution and results in anti-trafficking campaigns that do little to improve the living conditions of the country's migrant women workers. Drawing on more than twenty months of fieldwork between 1999 and 2002 in Dalian involving approximately two hundred bar hostesses in ten karaoke bars, the chapter reveals how Chinese police and other state authorities collude with local officials and brothel managers, forcing sex workers into a state of constant vigilance. It also discusses the factors that facilitated the growth of Dalian's karaoke bar industry and the impact of China's anti-trafficking policy on hostesses working in karaoke bars by depicting them alternately as victims or deviants. Finally, it analyzes the perception of Dalian's sex workers, most of them rural migrants, that hostessing is the best option for social mobility.
