Victims of trafficking and modern slavery or agents of change? Migrants, brokers, and the state in Ghana and Myanmar

Abstract

The authors provide critical insights into the creation of unfree labour in Ghana and Myanmar by examining the roles of brokers, the state, and employers in positioning migrants in exploitative work in Libya, the Middle East, Singapore, and Thailand. The analysis draws on in-depth interviews with migrant construction workers and domestic workers, formal and informal brokers, transport providers, and other stakeholders. The authors show that brokerage is embedded in systems of reciprocity and closely depends on the co-optation of state actors. The research suggests that, rather than viewing migrants and those who mediate migration in opposition and the state as a benevolent facilitator, they should be analysed as co-constituting human trafficking, debt-bondage, and forced labour. It highlights the need for states to take greater responsibility for their own involvement in creating modern slavery. At the same time, the findings highlight the ways in which migrants use brokerage to exercise agency by taking advantage of irregular migration routes and informal employment.

The Routledge Handbook of Smuggling

“…This is especially characteristic of brokerage and smuggling, which are linked to placement at destination. In such instances, there is usually a continuum from the first point of contact between a migrant and a local broker to the end destination which is facilitated by interconnected intermediaries, including the actual border smugglers (Awumbila et al, 2019b;Deshingkar et al, 2019). Village level brokers in the migrant's own community may have established relations with recruitment agents in towns and cities who in turn are linked to travel operators, passport authorities, passport photo units, health testing centres, immigration officials and border police, and smugglers at the border, then finally placement agencies in the destination country.…”

“…There are also clear "corridors" of smuggling among non-contiguous countries, some separated by considerable distances and on separate continents, such as Bangladesh and South Africa (Momen unpublished), Myanmar and Malaysia (Deshingkar et al, 2019), and Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia (Adugna et al, 2021). These corridors have evolved with the emergence of relatively lucrative work options in manufacturing and processing, care work and a variety of jobs in cities.…”

“…Irregularity in migration encompasses a range of scenarios -overstaying visas (Momen and Deshingkar et al, 2019), delinking from tied work permits (Deshingkar et al, 2019;Jureidini, 2017), irregular border crossings (Ayalew et al, 2018;Triandafyllidou 2020;Triandafyllidou and Bartolini, 2020), rejected asylum seekers and the children of undocumented parents (Triandafyllidou and Bartolini, 2020). Here we are concerned mainly with the actors and processes involved in irregular border crossings which involve entering a country without complying with the necessary requirements for legal entry, such as possessing a valid visa, work permit or health certificate, or entering at points not designated as ports of entry.…”

Acteurs, Espaces et Réseaux de l’industrie de la migration clandestine en Casamance(Sénégal)

“…A. Ngom de rajouter que pour le migrant il est beaucoup plus simple de payer auprès de passeurs que d"attendre une réponse positive qu"il ne recevra jamais. E. Bouilly (2008) avait déjà à partir de Thiaroye-sur-Mer, une banlieue de Dakar au Sénégal, montré comment la migration clandestine, initialement soutenue par des femmes qui vendaient leurs parures sont revenues pour créer un collectif après que la mer ait engloutie plus de 100 jeunes de cette banlieue.Gueye, D. et Deshingkar, P. (2019) de conclure que « la criminalisation de l'activité n'a pas réussi à éliminer cette pratique…et des efforts doivent être faits pour ouvrir davantage de voie de migration légale et de circulation de main d'oeuvre ».…”

‘They make a business out of desperate people’: The role of recruitment agents in cross-border labour chains

“…Throughout the migration process, they 'actively shape and produce knowledge' (Wee et al, 2020: 2), and importantly, they can be influential in shaping working conditions (Soundararajan et al, 2018). Notwithstanding, the role they play in unfree labour chains is less researched (Deshingkar et al, 2019). Furthermore, it is only recently that researchers have turned their attention to 'consider the rampant, systemic abuses that migrant workers encounter during recruitment in their countries of origin' (Farbenblum, 2017: 153; see also Karim, 2017;Setyawati, 2013).…”