Anti-slavery as development: A global politics of rescue

McGrath, Siobhán; Watson, Samantha

doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.04.013

Cited by 43 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Our research findings provide a powerful evidence base for critically evaluating the likely effectiveness of the MSA 2015’s ‘rescue state’ approach vis-à-vis victims of ‘modern slavery’ (McGrath and Watson, 2018; Robinson, 2019) against the backdrop of the ‘hostile state’ approach to migration, recently intensified under the Immigration Acts of 2014 and 2016. This legislation has made it easier to deport irregular migrants from the UK through streamlining the removals process, reducing legal challenges to removal decisions, and creating a ‘deport now, appeal later’ power.…”

Section: The ‘Rescue State’ Versus the ‘Hostile State’: Whither The 2mentioning

confidence: 91%

Fighting or fuelling forced labour? The Modern Slavery Act 2015, irregular migrants and the vulnerabilising role of the UK’s hostile environment

Hodkinson

Lewis

Waite

et al. 2020

Critical Social Policy

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Abolishing ‘modern slavery’ has now achieved international policy consensus. The most recent UK initiative – the 2015 Modern Slavery Act (MSA) – includes amongst other aspects tougher prison sentencing for perpetrators and the creation of an independent anti-slavery commissioner to oversee its implementation. However, drawing on research into forced labour among people seeking asylum in England, this article argues that when considered alongside the UK government’s deliberate creation of a ‘hostile environment’ towards migrants, not least in the Immigration Acts of 2014 and 2016, state action to outlaw modern slavery is flawed, counter-productive and disingenuous. We show how the MSA focuses only on the immediate act of coercion between ‘victim’ and ‘criminal’, ignoring how the hostile state vulnerabilises migrants in ways that compel their entry into and continued entrapment within severe labour exploitation.

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Section: The ‘Rescue State’ Versus the ‘Hostile State’: Whither The 2mentioning

confidence: 91%

Fighting or fuelling forced labour? The Modern Slavery Act 2015, irregular migrants and the vulnerabilising role of the UK’s hostile environment

Hodkinson

Lewis

Waite

et al. 2020

Critical Social Policy

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“…She argues that despite growing interest from academics, it is noteworthy that “‘traditional’ labour geography has been largely silent on the issue” (Strauss, 2012, p. 138). McGrath and Watson (2018) endorse Strauss’s emphasis on the need to mobilise understandings of space and place in analyses of exploitation and “unfreedom” (Strauss, 2012, p. 139). However, they also urge “geographers to be mindful of the body of critical literature” that raises fundamental concerns with the categories of both “unfree labour” and the generic grouping trafficking, forced labour, and “modern slavery” (TFLS) (McGrath & Watson, 2018, p. 23).…”

Section: Trafficking and Returnmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographies of stigma: Post‐trafficking experiences

Laurie

Richardson

2020

Trans Inst British Geog

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This paper explores the relationship between human trafficking and geographies of stigma based on qualitative research in Nepal. It explains how geographies of stigma circumscribe the agency of those who return from having experienced trafficking, affecting their livelihoods and mobilities. It examines processes of spatial differentiation, territorialisation and scalar hierarchies in relation to the production and navigation of stigma.

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“…Critical scholars argue that the legacies of colonial power and White supremacy have been dominating the knowledge production of human trafficking, such as framing the “problem” of trafficking, establishing globalized “best practices” of policy and social programing, and constructing master profiles of trafficking victims (Cheng, 2008; Kapur, 2000; Kaye, 2017; Kempadoo, 2015; Kotiswaran, 2014; McGrath & Watson, 2018). For instance, Hua and Nigorizawa (2010) pointed out that human trafficking is predominately framed as a problem resulting from “‘bad’ morals” associated with “cultural backwardness” and “sexual deviancy” in the “Third World” which lead to the “‘bad’ practices” of human trafficking (p. 415).…”

Section: Challenging the Representations Of Trafficking And Traffickimentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining Social Service Providers’ Representation of Trafficking Victims: A Feminist Postcolonial Lens

2019

Affilia

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As anti-trafficking social service providers (SSPs) facilitate the process of victim recovery and empowerment, they also participate in the dissemination of trafficking-related knowledge to the general public. Drawing on a feminist postcolonial framework, this study sought to examine how anti-trafficking SSPs represent trafficking victims in written narratives published on their organizational websites. Thirty-three narratives were drawn from the websites of 10 New York–based anti-trafficking SSPs. Despite the widespread adoption of a strength-based term, “survivor,” the narratives were found to reinforce a gendered and racialized representation of trafficking victims as sex trafficked women from the “global South” and to (re)produce many “ideal” trafficking victim stereotypes that have been dominating the current discourses of trafficking. A “life transformation” discourse was pervasive, discursively foregrounding the positive impact of the SSPs on trafficking survivors. The findings suggested a need for anti-trafficking SSPs to engage with critical reflection on their positionality and intentionality in representing trafficking victims/survivors and to adopt a survivor-led storytelling paradigm. This study also provided a timely reminder for social work practitioners and researchers to continue to challenge the dominant narratives embedded in their fields of practice, to exercise critical self-reflexivity, and to provide a discursive space for those who have been deprived of voices.

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Anti-slavery as development: A global politics of rescue

Cited by 43 publications

References 56 publications

Fighting or fuelling forced labour? The Modern Slavery Act 2015, irregular migrants and the vulnerabilising role of the UK’s hostile environment

Fighting or fuelling forced labour? The Modern Slavery Act 2015, irregular migrants and the vulnerabilising role of the UK’s hostile environment

Geographies of stigma: Post‐trafficking experiences

Examining Social Service Providers’ Representation of Trafficking Victims: A Feminist Postcolonial Lens

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