Abstract, Migration and Trafficking of Persons for Labor Exploitation in the Textile Workshops of Buenos Aires under Neoliberalism

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Migration and Trafficking of Persons for Labor Exploitation in the Textile Workshops of Buenos Aires under Neoliberalism
by Debora Betrisey


The practices and political representations of the Argentine state with regard to trafficking in persons for purposes of labor exploitation, currently dominated by legal logic, treat immigrant workers as vulnerable victims. This robs them of any autonomy and ignores other aspects of their subjectivity, hindering the establishment of connections and solidarity with other social sectors in the national context that would allow them to contest the exploitation and domination to which they are subject.

Introduction, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in Latin America

:::::: Introduction ::::::

Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in Latin America
by Daniela Issa

Very few scholars in Latin America deny the existence of modern slavery today, but when the literature began denouncing and analyzing it in the late 1990s1 as a practice very much present in the world the phenomenon was met with astonishment. Because of slavery’s being a historical practice, “vestiges” of it seemed a more plausible explanation than the purported reality of “modern slavery”—a construction seemingly leading to an oxymoron in the social imaginary. For one thing, this astonishment presupposed the incompatibility of slavery in any form with the promises of Post-Enlightenment modernity associated with emancipation and individual liberties. Further, modernity’s scientific and technical progress is invariably associated with the moral and ethical progress of humanity and the implication of a better world, a different stage of historical development. In the past couple of decades, however, the literature has come to be quite homogeneous in its acceptance of the phenomenon in spite of the apparent paradox of the modern, neoliberal world order: assurances of more freedom, in particular individual liberties, on the one hand and extreme exploitation of labor on the other.

Abstract, Migration and Trafficking of Persons for Labor Exploitation in the Textile Workshops of Buenos Aires under Neoliberalism

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Migration and Trafficking of Persons for Labor Exploitation in the Textile Workshops of Buenos Aires under Neoliberalism
by Debora Betrisey


The practices and political representations of the Argentine state with regard to trafficking in persons for purposes of labor exploitation, currently dominated by legal logic, treat immigrant workers as vulnerable victims. This robs them of any autonomy and ignores other aspects of their subjectivity, hindering the establishment of connections and solidarity with other social sectors in the national context that would allow them to contest the exploitation and domination to which they are subject.

Introduction, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in Latin America

:::::: Introduction ::::::

Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in Latin America
by Daniela Issa

Very few scholars in Latin America deny the existence of modern slavery today, but when the literature began denouncing and analyzing it in the late 1990s1 as a practice very much present in the world the phenomenon was met with astonishment. Because of slavery’s being a historical practice, “vestiges” of it seemed a more plausible explanation than the purported reality of “modern slavery”—a construction seemingly leading to an oxymoron in the social imaginary. For one thing, this astonishment presupposed the incompatibility of slavery in any form with the promises of Post-Enlightenment modernity associated with emancipation and individual liberties. Further, modernity’s scientific and technical progress is invariably associated with the moral and ethical progress of humanity and the implication of a better world, a different stage of historical development. In the past couple of decades, however, the literature has come to be quite homogeneous in its acceptance of the phenomenon in spite of the apparent paradox of the modern, neoliberal world order: assurances of more freedom, in particular individual liberties, on the one hand and extreme exploitation of labor on the other.

November 2017 Issue, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in Latin America

Issue Editor: Daniela Issa

Issue 217 | Volume 44 | Number 6 | November 2017

 

Table of Contents

Modern slavery and human trafficking affect an estimated 1.8 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean today yet remain significantly understudied given their devastating human consequences. This issue addresses this gap in the slavery and trafficking scholarship by taking a critical look at it across the region and situating it within the transnational capitalist economy. Articles include theoretical analyses of the phenomenon as well as recruitment practices, populations susceptible to being enslaved/trafficking, and the role of violence. Additionally, it seeks to provide regional balance in the literature on slavery and trafficking in Latin America, which has disproportionately centered on Brazil; it highlights three underresearched areas—slavery outside Brazil, nonsexual slavery, and smugglers/traffickers rather than victims exclusively.