The counter‐trafficking apparatus in action: who benefits from it?
Based on long-term ethnographic research, including documentary research, quali- tative interviews and observations made at a Portuguese shelter for “sex trafficked women,” this paper explores the counter-trafficking apparatus questioning who ben- efits from it. The discussion explores the contrasts...
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| Format: | article |
| Language: | eng |
| Published: |
2022
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10071/25783 |
| Country: | Portugal |
| Oai: | oai:repositorio.iscte-iul.pt:10071/25783 |
| Summary: | Based on long-term ethnographic research, including documentary research, quali- tative interviews and observations made at a Portuguese shelter for “sex trafficked women,” this paper explores the counter-trafficking apparatus questioning who ben- efits from it. The discussion explores the contrasts between an institutional commit- ment to constructing this apparatus and the actuality of procedural efforts purporting to support “trafficking victims.” I argue that the higher goal of building a counter- trafficking apparatus — in itself a political objective — limits the rights of “vic- tims,” making processes that claim to be part of their protection de facto neo-liberal anti-political exercises in reenforcing bureaucratic state power. |
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