Human Traffic: Sex, Slaves & Immigration [Paperback]

Craig McGill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2004

The stories of illegal immigrants from four continents who have embarked on dangerous journeys in trucks, boats, and even underneath trains are told in this investigation of the personal, economic, and legal dimensions of the international trade of people smuggling. Interviews with immigrants reveal the deceptive expectations perpetuated by smugglers, which are dashed by the immigrants' experiences with sexual slavery, long hours in sweatshops, or living without access to health care, legal housing, and education. Case studies compare the fate of illegal and legal immigrants to examine why immigrants choose this option and who profits from their suffering. Members of the underworld in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Australia who organize this illicit movement of people are also interviewed.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Craig McGill is a reporter for the Sunday Mirror. He is the author of Do No Harm? and Football Inc. His work has appeared in the Guardian, Scotsman, and Time.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Vision (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904132170
• ISBN-13: 978-1904132172
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #878,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An exploitative, poorly researched book, January 13, 2005

By 

M. Littau-Mora (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Human Traffic: Sex, Slaves & Immigration (Paperback)

It's a shame that this sort of thing gets published. I've spent years studying unsanctioned migration and take it from me: this book stinks. It is badly written, un-researched, and seemingly un-edited. The title says it all: pure sensationalism. "Hey! Let's exploit human suffering and make Big Bucks in the publishing trade! We got sex! We got slavery! We got it all, folks!" McGill's "investigation" seems to consist mainly of interviews with a very few informants; his reference list in the back consists of a few decent essays on the topic from consumer magazines and then a bunch of trivial articles and websites; it includes virtually none of the really important works on the field. The book ranges from vaguely plausible to complete nonsense: at one point he describes the temperature in the Arizona desert as 130 degrees Celsius (a nice image of cacti boiling over and cars melting into the pavement). All of his information on illegal immigration from Mexico seems to come from one immigrant and one "retired Border Patrol agent." Good lord. Similarly, all his data on coming from China is from one person, padded out with some hearsay about another. I lived on the US-Mexico border for a decade, and I can say that virtually everything he says about the place suggests that he never set foot there (or even looked at it on a map - he has a guy taking Highway 80 from Bisbee to Phoenix, which McGill strangely refers to by the name of its airport, Sky Harbor). While it's fine to get data from individual informants, even a small number of them, a careful journalist does substantial background research and follow-up, which McGill clearly didn't. There are many, many good books on this topic - written by people who care enough about the issue to do legitimate investigation and research - and if you read a few of them, you will realize after about 5 pages of this book that it is a complete sham. Pick up one of the vastly more reliable, carefully researched, well documented books by Suarez-Orozco, Kimberly Grimes, Felix Padilla, Mariam Davidson, Ted Conover, Ruben Martinez, Mike Davis, Alejandro Portes, Ruben Rumbaut, etc. And say NO to McGill's brand of exploitative, sensationalist tripe.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stories about desperate people and the walls that block them, March 2, 2005

By 

Allan M. Gathercoal "fdoamerica" (Norcross, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Human Traffic: Sex, Slaves & Immigration (Paperback)

McGill has given us a well laid out, quick introduction to the millions of desperate people who seek, regardless of risk of life or financial cost, to start life over in a 1st world country. He also shows how these very countries are determined not to let them in.

The book is in three sections: The Immigrants, The Smugglers and the Authorities.
In each section, McGill uses his journalistic skills, highlighting the human side of all concerned. He writes intelligently about the plight of those who want a better life and freedom from oppression, about the greed of the highly organized criminals that run the trafficking engine, and notes the frustration of the authorities who are professionally trained, competent and often hamstrung by politics.

The desperate stories of the illegal are gripping and graphic. Few who read this book, if they were in the same situation would not try to find a better life. You will read the stories of the lowlife, scumbags who make billions (not just millions) of dollars trafficking human flesh. These syndicates (often connected with the Police and Military in Asia) actually laugh at the often-feeble attempt that nations put up to stop trafficking.

More than about the sex trade or slaves, McGill writes about "illegal" entry into various nations and the journey that it takes such a brave and frantic soul. In the USA alone (2002 statistics) there were 9 to 13 million illegal aliens (mostly Mexicans) living in the country. Each day tens of thousands attempt to cross the porous border.

Now, post 9/11, the book points out a few of the efforts that more vigilant countries have taken to curb the movement of millions of people per year who want in. Most of the 9/11 terrorists were in the USA because of a seriously flawed department of immigration management system. Nothing is mentioned in the book about this.

Now there is a good chance that millions of the `illegals' in the US will be granted legal status by President Bush. This blatant political action would make a sham out of the existing legal immigration programs that honest applicants go through legally, often waiting years, to get in the USA legally. Bush's legalization of illegal aliens sends the message to all seeking to enter the USA "Why try to be honest and legal when it is easier to arrive illegally and get a politically motivated pardon later."

McGill's book is not about just immigration into the USA. He also shows how England, Germany and Australia have greater immigration problems that the USA does. He points out that a few, like Norway and Australia, have seriously tightened up their program and clamped down on illegal entry into their countries.

This is a quick, short airplane read and it would be a great introduction for High School and College students. The general populace will find his writing clear and engaging. The book has a discernable bias for the illegal needing to get in. More so than the right of nations to defend and protect their own populace and boarders. The lack of an index, the lack of an appendix listing the statistics on illegal immigration through out the world, and a more complete bibliography may keep this book from being used more in education. Recommended 3.5 stars

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very informative, June 9, 2004

By 

John McFarlane - See all my reviews

This review is from: Human Traffic: Sex, Slaves & Immigration (Paperback)

I would have given this book a higher rating, but I think it suffers from a few serious flaws. As other reviewers have pointed out, the Asian sex trade is very well researched and reported on in detail. It covers all aspects of the sex trade, such as the management/organization, (how it bypasses) the legal framework and of course the customers and the 'sex slaves' themselves.

There is definitely a feminist bias in the book. I can understand that this research can make the author emotional and angry, but expressing sentiments so clearly and expressively - and also the not infrequent generalizations (such as Pakistani men are so and so and Japanese men are so and so) certainly reduces the credibility of the book. As the last reviewer also noted I also found the book quite repetitive, some parts to such a degree that I skipped over them as I felt I wasn't reading anything new. I believe this is a result of a lack of structure - although the book itself is well structured into its constituent chapters, the chapters themselves seem rather unorganized, and I feel some parts/information would have fit better elsewhere. Sometimes I had to leaf back to prior parts in the book to 'connect the dots'.

Nevertheless, the book is worth reading for the information, some of it little known (I have lived in Asia and heard some of the stories before, but there is plenty of info that was truly new to me) - and in particular the many direct accounts of the prostitutes themselves.

I find it difficult to rate this book. I admite the author's courage and intentions - writing a book on a topic too many people are afraid to speak of, and too little seem genuinely concerned about. Nevertheless, I feel it needs some editing: some shortening, some structuring, and certainly some modifications if it wants to be a credible report of academic research.