Call for Papers: Migration and Forced Labor

The International Debate Education Association (IDEA) is calling for position papers for an edited volume on human trafficking titled, Human Trafficking: Reconsidering the Problem, edited by Kimberly Kay Hoang and Rhacel Parreñas. The editors seek manuscripts from scholars and practitioners from all academic disciplines (economics, law, social sciences, gender and sexuality studies, public policy, health, and business). People working with relevant NGO’s, government agencies, and public health organizations are also invited to submit their work. IDEA will publish the volume in 2013 with the financial support of the Open Society Foundations.

The current literature on human trafficking focuses overwhelmingly on the issue of sex trafficking often overlooking the problem of “human trafficking” through the lens of migration and “forced labor”. A focus on “forced labor” avoids conflating trafficking with prostitution, and at the same time calls attention to the susceptibility of a wide range of migrant workers, not just sex workers, to human trafficking. The volume thus, seeks papers on trafficked persons that include not only sex workers but also agricultural, construction, factory, and domestic workers to understand the structures and systems that render migrant workers vulnerable to human trafficking.

In an attempt to expand the literature and research on human trafficking, this volume will consider a wide array of jobs that leave migrant workers vulnerable to human trafficking. We seek papers that describe how the conditions, structures, social institutions, and systems of various occupations leave workers vulnerable to forced labor and human trafficking. We will focus on the following themes:

• The vulnerability of migrant workers in the 21st century, including sex workers, agricultural workers, construction workers, and domestic workers among many others.
• The systematic ways that social institutions such as broker industries and guest worker programs impact human trafficking
• Papers that work to provide a more precise definition for the concept of exploitation that systematically accounts for the gradations of indenture among victims of “human trafficking,” by distinguishing between peonage, servitude, and slavery
• Papers that predict long-term consequences of forced labor by examining the reintegration of rescued trafficked victims and the plight of the children and families of migrant workers vulnerable to forced labor

In addressing the themes above, we hope to provide a more systematic understanding of the problem of human trafficking that recognizes the structural problems caused by institutions and systems of migration. Position papers should be written in a style that is accessible to non-academic audiences and no longer than 3500 words (15 double-spaced pages) including all relevant citations.

Please submit papers to: Kimberly Kay Hoang via email at kayhoang@rice.edu no later than October 31, 2012. Acceptance notifications will be made by November 30, 2012. Please Direct all questions and correspondence via postal mail to: Kimberly Kay Hoang | Rice University | 6100 Main St Mech Lab 210 | P.O. Box 1892 MS-38 | Houston, TX 77005.