Trafficking And Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives On Migration, Sex Work, And Human Rights (Transnational Feminist Studies) [Paperback]

Kamala Kempadoo (Editor), Jyoti Sanghera (Editor), Bandana Pattanaik (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 25, 2005 | ISBN-10: 1594510970 | ISBN-13: 978-1594510977

Trafficking and prostitution are widely believed to be synonymous, and to be leading international crimes. This collection argues against such sensationalism and advances carefully considered and grounded alternatives for understanding transnational migrations, forced labor, sex work, and livelihood strategies under new forms of globalization. From their long-term engagements as anti-trafficking advocates, the authors unpack the contemporary international debate on trafficking. They maintain that rather than a new 'white slave trade,' we are witnessing today, more broadly, an increase in the violation of the rights of freedom of movement, decent employment, and social and economic security. Critical examinations of state anti-trafficking interventions, including the US-led War on Trafficking, also reveal links to a broader attack on undocumented migrants, tribal and aboriginal peoples, poor women, men and children, and sex workers. The book sheds new light on everyday circumstances, popular discourses, and strategies for survival under twenty-first century economic and political conditions, with a focus on Asia, but with lessons globally.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Contributors: Natasha Ahmad, Vachararutai Boontinand, Lin Chew, Melissa Ditmore, John Frederick, Matthew S. Friedman, Josephine Ho, Jagori, Ratna Kapur, Phil Marshall, Jyoti Sanghera, Susu Thatun --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Kamala Kempadoo, Associate Professor in Social Science at York University, Canada, is the author of Sexing the Caribbean: Gender, Race and Sexual Labor (2004) and Global Sex Workers: Rights, Resistance, and Redefinition (1998).

Product Details

• Paperback: 247 pages
• Publisher: Paradigm Publishers (June 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594510970
• ISBN-13: 978-1594510977
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #508,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deserves a wider audience, June 21, 2006

By 

DFG - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Trafficking And Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives On Migration, Sex Work, And Human Rights (Transnational Feminist Studies) (Paperback)

An interesting book at an interesting time, when the problem of human trafficking is finally beginning to get the international attention it deserves. Unfortunately, as the book points out, much of that attention is based upon a few overly simplistic assumptions.

The editor and the essayists argue persuasively that greater attention needs to be paid to those forms of trafficking which do not fit into the (mostly inaccurate) stereotype of 'young girl snatched from home and forced into prostitution', and to how trafficking is facilitated by strict migration laws, gender stereotypes and an absence of worker protections.

Those who think trafficking can be stopped by criminalising prostitution, or by denying funding to organisations simply because they don't take an abolitionist line, will find much food for thought here.

If I have one complaint about the book it's that it's too Asian-centric. While that's obviously the part of the world where the trafficking problem is most acute, it wouldn't have hurt to include just one essay about another part of the world.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, May 1, 2007

By 

Mrs. Patricia L. Aliperti - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trafficking And Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives On Migration, Sex Work, And Human Rights (Transnational Feminist Studies) (Paperback)

Working on my thesis on human trafficking, I have found this book very useful.

16 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A text that in the end favors trafficking, January 2, 2007

By 

Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trafficking And Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives On Migration, Sex Work, And Human Rights (Transnational Feminist Studies) (Paperback)

Under the guise of being against trafficking but wanting to 'de-sensationalize it' this book in the end argues that all laws against trafficking are in fact really 'racist' laws that are really designed to stop migrant labour and are themselves harming 'indigenous' and 'aboriginal' people. This is a wonderfully crafted scam, a typical scam that uses underlying principles and high language to promote or simply dis-regard the millions of women held in virtual slavery year after year in places as far flung as Bangkok, Prague and New York. No one in their serious mind can claim a law that puts away a person who sells a 12 year old girl into a brothel to work as a slave is really a 'covertly racist law' that 'discriminates' against the 12 year old by not allowing her the freedom of being enslaved. Yet this book bends over backward to do just that, to try to covnince us that in fact if only the 'racist' west stopped pushing its values on the 'east' by telling places like Cambodia that it is wrong to sell 12 year girls who thought they were going to work as chamber maids into brothels is somehow 'racist' becuase, and this is the insinuation, 'that is what cambodian girls are for'. This is a disgusting, wrethed, offence and racist text whose conslusions do a great disservice to the global effort to stop slavery and human trafficking.

Seth J. Frantzman