Seventeenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Large waves of global migration, driven exponentially by climate change, poverty, and disintegration of traditional societies, have also increased human trafficking. As people are desperate and unprotected they are increasingly vulnerable to the predation of traffickers. As global market forces erode the viability of local agriculture and production, people are forced to “sell” the only resources they have that the unregulated market wants – their bodies for labor, sex, organs, etc. This creates forced migration where people desperately seek safety and basic survival as they are compelled to leave their traditional societies. Human traffickers lure, capture, and forcibly move these vulnerable people around the world following the demands of the global market. Increasingly porous national borders make monitoring, regulation, and protection of victims challenging. Even ordinary sectors of the economy are complicit in sex and medical tourism by providing travel and transportation services, document production, medical expertise, etc. These shadow systems just below the official surfaces of the economy undermine the rule of law and disintegrate the sinews that hold traditional communities together. This study explores these difficult realities as well as some initial steps towards possible solutions.