Abstract
A term as morally and politically loaded as ‘modern day slave trade’ inevitably provokes strong and emotive responses. From the current Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) (Antonio Guterres) to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (Theresa May) world leaders have identified human trafficking and slavery as an issue of pressing international concern. The legal understanding of migration (whether legal or illegal, across national borders or internally) has, the article maintains, been constructed in a specific way, serving specific interests. The current ‘migration crisis’ in Europe demonstrates how the key actors are the same, namely, the victim, villain and the rescuer. The purpose of this paper is to critique the influence of The New Abolitionists movement on contemporary responses to female migration; and through applying a gender lens to the movement it will investigate whether their narratives further drives the gender inequalities that plague the migration framework.
Highlights
The world is witnessing extraordinary movements of people, legally and illegally across national and international borders (Kapur, 2012: 25)
The expansive legal architecture implemented to prevent illegal and irregular migration has created diminished opportunities for legal authorised migration, subsequently prompting the expansion and diversification of markets of clandestine services (Alpes, 2011; Kempadoo et al, 2012; O’Connell Davidson, 2015). This in turn has led to increased focus upon migration, with the overwhelming emphasis placed upon human trafficking or the ‘modern slave trade’
This paper addresses the influence of the abolitionist movement upon modern-day responses to female migration and to consider if the movement further drives the gender inequalities that plague the migration framework
Summary
The world is witnessing extraordinary movements of people, legally and illegally across national and international borders (Kapur, 2012: 25). The expansive legal architecture implemented to prevent illegal and irregular migration has created diminished opportunities for legal authorised migration, subsequently prompting the expansion and diversification of markets of clandestine services (Alpes, 2011; Kempadoo et al, 2012; O’Connell Davidson, 2015). This in turn has led to increased focus upon migration, with the overwhelming emphasis placed upon human trafficking or the ‘modern slave trade’. After a discussion of the contemporary abolitionist movement, the paper critiques the framing of human trafficking as the ‘modern slave trade’ and briefly chart the historical origin of human trafficking within international legal frameworks. The paper proposes that empirically grounded research into why women migrate is needed to challenge the dominance of the rescue narrative and to serve as the foundations to develop strategies to help women access their rights to migrate
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