AP-AT · THE ANTI-POLITICS OF ANTI-TRAFFICKING: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ANTI-TRAFFICKING POLICY AND PRACTICE IN BENIN AND ITALY
FP7 — People (Marie Curie Actions)
- Duration
- 2013-05-27 → 2016-05-26
- EU contribution
- €185,764
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MC-IEF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
THE ANTI-POLITICS OF ANTI-TRAFFICKING: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ANTI-TRAFFICKING POLICY AND PRACTICE IN BENIN AND ITALY
AP-AT has been a great success on a number of levels. The project set out to undertake a comparative analysis of anti-trafficking policy in Benin and Italy, as a lens through which to examine anti-trafficking policy more broadly. It built on a doctorate examining the trafficking regime in Benin, and over the course of this Fellowship expanded that research to comparatively examine the regimes in Italy and Europe more widely. Field research was conducted at European level, with European anti-traffickers, at Italian national level, and at ground level, with a case study population of apparently trafficked workers defined as victims of severe exploitation and/or forced labour. My research involved many months of interviews and field observation, with political actors and the targets of their interventions. It saw me analyse political documentation and public declarations. And it was also buttressed by consistent engagement with fellow scholars working on similar issues. What I found was what I hypothesised: anti-trafficking policy (which, it appears, is ever more closely related to anti-forced labour and anti-modern slavery policy) is profoundly depoliticising. It fails to conceive of the dangers to human freedom posed by the organisation of the market economy and the bordering of society. The issues 'discussable' by anti-trafficking actors are determined by political power and the exigencies (and pressures) of funding. As well as by problematic and unquestioned assumptions about the empirical experience of labour and mobility based on minimal engagement with exploited migrant workers. This prevents policy from effectively protecting people. I believe that the impact of this research can be (and indeed, as the next section will show, has been) significant. I have translated it up to policy makers at European and global levels. I have written consistently for public audiences and sought to provide guidance to international organisations (with whom I have also entered into partnership). My work informed the team drafting the Forced Labour Protocol and that of civil society advocating around labour trafficking at the European level. It will be of interest to scholars, civil society, and political leaders, with my hope that it will lead at least the first two of these three to re-think the support they give to the latter. To this end, I undertook the following trainings during the MCF: 2015 Strategic Advocacy (Bond UK) 2014 Project Management (Hemsley Fraser) 2013 Diplomatic Communication (Dale Carnegie) 2013 Leadership, Persuasion and Influence (Reed Learning) I also undertook public speaking training at the EUI.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
During this Fellowship, I will expand my PhD research on the politics and practice of anti- human trafficking policy in Benin, by conducting a comparative study of Benin and Italy. I aim to examine whether the trends I found in Benin apply to the anti-trafficking field more generally, and my hypothesis is that they do. Specifically, I wish to investigate the way anti-trafficking policy and related discourse de-politicise human migration, fail to reflect or respond to empirics, and work to reinforce institutional status quos more than to protect or aid ‘victims’ and ‘the vulnerable’. The comparative nature of the study and my proposed methodology –combining political-economic analysis, interviews and participant observation with migrant sending and receiving communities, and interviews and discourse analysis with policy actors at all levels of the policy chain– make it unique in its field. Carrying it to fruition and developing the methodological, organisational and advocacy skills necessary to do so will cement my transition from promising PhD to pioneering researcher and field leader in my own right. Moreover, by enabling me to conduct comparative work, the Fellowship removes me from the silos of ‘African studies’ and ‘Trafficking’ and establishes me as a scholar of migration studies more broadly. The intended outputs of the project are various, including 3 referred journal articles, an intersectoral academic/policy-maker conference, the creation of advocacy links between institutions involved in the field, and widespread public dissemination of findings. I believe this will ultimately contribute towards establishing the EU as a world leader in anti-trafficking policy and strategy, addressing and offering remedies for the significant problems that exist internally (in the example of Italy) and externally (through donor relations in Benin). Critically, I believe that this will in turn benefit the individuals who so often suffer as a result of misguided EU policy.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE · FiesoleCoordinatorItaly
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union