Population geography I

Abstract

This first report explores how understandings of human trafficking have progressed within population geography. Exemplified by studies of exploitative labour migration, population geography has made implicit contributions by stressing the value of a geographic perspective of the webs of inter-connections and links between different places and trafficking. In addition, dominant ideas of linear trafficking processes have been disrupted, via evidencing the informal involvement of families in the phases of recruitment, transportation, and control. I argue that a more encompassing, inter-disciplinary tenet could be woven into population studies of trafficking, by more explicitly engaging with social science debates. Embedding the legal, global definition of trafficking into wider studies of migration is paramount for this direction of travel. There is also merit in population geography advancing understandings by adopting holistic lenses of enquiry, connecting-up with (sub-)disciplinary geographic studies of migration and trafficking in the Global South and Global North. Studies of trafficking provide a potentially fruitful terrain for population geography to deliver multi-disciplinary, impactful research of a key global challenge, to inform policies to prevent and mitigate the ills of trafficking, and progress conceptual and theoretical understandings of trafficking. KeywordsHuman trafficking, migration, population change, labour, exploitation I IntroductionMigration studies have been intensified within human geography by the so-called 'migration crisis ' (Davies and Isakjee, 2015;Collyer, 2016;Raghuram, 2016), sparking countless recent discussions of smuggling, asylum-seeking, refugees, and precarious and insecure movements; as international migration per se is firmly thrust into international political, policy, media and academic spotlights (Smith et al., 2015). Yet, there continues to be a relative dearth of studies of human trafficking in geographic scholarship, despite this unprecedented attention to conceptually-overlapping forms of migration (O'Connell Davidson, 2010;. This is particularly surprising within the context of population geography, given the ascendency of migration studies within the sub-discipline and trafficking being a form of migration that is in the limelight.First, trafficking is symbolic of wider contemporary global trends of the marketization and growth of migration industries within the 'age of migration ' (King, 2012). Processes of trafficking, for instance, are expressive of King's (2002: 95) assertion that: 'Migration has become a new global business with a constantly shifting set of agents, mechanisms, routes, prices and niches'. Indeed, King uses the example of trafficking to illustrate how market concepts have more fully penetrated into migration processes, describing the growth of a 'Migration PLC' and the proliferation of traffickers, agents, intermediaries, and monetary frameworks for places of origin, routes/transits and destination. In this way, more research on traffi...

Municipal Territoriality: The Impact of Centralized Mechanisms and Political and Structural Factors on Reducing Spatial Inequality

“…The same populations support the Shas party, which claims to represent Jewish Mizrahim/Sephardim populations and controlled the Interior Ministry for more than 20 years between 1989 and 2022. Thus, following Smith [61], we expand this topic even further and suggest that future studies deal with the questions of 'who gets what, where, how and from whom? '.…”

For critical geo‐histories of population. Engaging geographically with Massimo Livi Bacci's works

“…While talking to heated political debates on sovereignism and xenophobia in Western societies, Livi Bacci's concerns match current critical geographies and geopolitics of mobility that criticise ideas of territorial sovereignty and linear boundaries as instruments serving biopolitical (and necropolitical) control over migrants ' and refugees' bodies (Casas-Cortes et al, 2015;Cresswell, 2006;Minca et al, 2022;Tazzioli, 2023). Livi Bacci's ideas of social engagement likewise match the general consensus existing among geographers of population on the need to foster the social and political relevance of the field (Bailey, 2005;Findlay, 2005;Finney, 2021;Smith, 2018;Tyner, 2013).…”

“…Thus, geographers would benefit from closer engagement with Livi Bacci's works on global population and sustainability to foster what Darren Smith defines ‘the potential for population geography to inform political and policy debates such as Brexit’ (Smith, 2019, p. 730), which includes engaging with growing scholarship in ‘migration studies’ (Smith, 2018, p. 297), not only using statistical methods but also qualitative inquiries on what happens to migrant populations over time. Yet, historical approaches and geo‐historical methodologies remain underutilised in current geographical literatures.…”

Human Trafficking: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda

“…For example, migrant workers trapped in unfair employment contracts may have limited mobility because the contracts restrict their movement. However, they can also be forced to move or become trapped in dangerous immobility situations (Smith, 2018).…”

“…Action choices can occur in two stages of HT. The first sub-phase occurs when the new victim falls into the HT, and the second sub-phase occurs when the victim is bound by an unfair contract and trapped in a dangerous situation of immobility (Smith, 2018). Victims tend to fall into debt traps set up by recruiters in exploitative work situations (Lebaron, 2014;Shekhar, 2021).…”