Increasingly the rhetoric of modern slavery is being deployed alongside that of human trafficking, as a means of addressing various forms of injustice and exploitation. Drawing on primary and secondary research, related to sexual violence in Cambodia and the Australian campaign to end orphanage tourism, it is argued that the discourses of trafficking and modern slavery risk imposing adverse effects on perceptions of these social problems. Those who are empowered to construct social phenomena as human trafficking or modern slavery tend to do so in accordance with the prevailing aims and understandings within their groups and social fields. Consequently, symbolic violence may be unwittingly imposed on identified victims, and on the alternative aims, understandings and priorities of those who are closest to the social action (and particularly those who are less powerful). Such risks demonstrate the importance of seeking to understand social problems in the light of local perspectives, social arrangements and cultural norms, and the reflexive challenge of working with – and against – human trafficking discourse.

About the presenter:

Dr Luke Bearup is an Honorary Lecturer at the College of the Arts and Social Science, Australian National University. His research program is entitled “The Protection of Others: policies and programs aiming for reintegration”. Luke was based in Cambodia for nine years where his work and research was focused on gangs, violence, exploitation, gender, human trafficking, and on the protection and reintegration of vulnerable sub-populations.