Trafficking borders

AYUSHMAN BHAGAT

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (journal)peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)
96 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This article offers an empirically informed conceptualisation of trafficking borders as spaces of restriction and negotiation, contingently produced, encountered, and escaped along the mobility routes of the targets of trafficking discourse. The concept of trafficking borders advances critical literature that considers anti-trafficking measures a vehicle of state-authorised bordering practices by demonstrating social and political spaces where the trafficking discourse coalesces several discourses, institutions, and practices as borders. The article draws on participatory action research conducted in Nepal to demonstrate the presence of borders in spaces such as households, communities, government offices, Indo-Nepal state borders, emigration detention and deportation centres, and airports. These spaces contribute to the critical understanding of locations where anti-trafficking measures curtail the rights, mobility, and choices of prospective migrant workers. Prioritising research participants’ experiences of encounters with trafficking borders, the article underscores that borders are the central experience of migrant workers which they must escape to actualise their labour migration projects. The con-ceptualisation further attempts to position the emigration regime as an important site of theorisation and thorough consideration of the diverse struggles of the labour migrants before they arrive at their labour relations in the immigration regime.
Original languageEnglish
Article number102598
Pages (from-to)1-10
JournalPolitical Geography
Volume95
Early online date21 Jan 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2022

Keywords

  • Human Trafficking
  • Modern Slavery
  • Migration
  • Borders
  • participatory action research
  • Escape
  • Subversion

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Trafficking borders'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this