When I first began researching human trafficking and modern forms of slavery fifteen years ago, there was very limited awareness of these offences, and even less scholarship. While non-profit organizations, activists, and charitable foundations have worked assiduously to raise awareness of human trafficking and to tackle root causes, investment by the academic community to analyze the nature, scale, and functioning of the phenomena has been slower to evolve. Indeed, much of the confusion relating to basic terms and concepts on the topic of modern forms of slavery has been due, in large part, to the lack of scholarly analysis of the issues. Following on this gap has been a dearth of robust, first-hand field research that can guide scholarship, investment, and activism, and help frame the complex questions relating to law, economics, human rights, gender, poverty, corruption, migration, the rights of children and minorities, and many other issues that are fundamental to our understanding of human trafficking.
Migration, technology, law, and measurement are each among the most topical areas of enquiry in the global human trafficking field, with much work remaining to be done in these and other areas. Beneath these particular intersections lies a crucial truth-slavery is a global business that thrives on the callous exploitation of the labor activity of a vast and highly vulnerable subclass of people whose brutalization is tacitly accepted by every participant in the global economy, from corporations to consumers. I am deeply gratified to edit Social Inclusion's second issue on human trafficking and modern slavery. The level of scholarly interest in these topics continues to grow, and in this issue the authors explore some of the most pressing manifestations of human trafficking around the world.
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