GEOG 145 Slavery and Human Trafficking Final Review
What is "human trafficking?
-2 possible interpretations that illustrate the contrast in solutions assumed by different definitions: -a few "bad guys" taking advantage of vulnerable innocents? (a criminal justice approach will solve this) -a set of migration trends in which extremely vulnerable grossly exploited? (we need socioeconomic changes on a global scale to affect this) -Governments deeply reluctant to view trafficking as a problem of migration/poverty/discrimination/gender-based violence -view trafficking as a 'law and order' problem requiring an aggressive criminal justice response -problem of trafficking begins not with the traffickers themselves but with the conditions that caused their victims to migrate under circumstances rendering them vulnerable to exploitation -viewing trafficking as a border/crime control issue caused governments to seize opportunity to develop new international counter-trafficking law in the form of a trafficking-specific protocol to a new international cooperation treaty to combat transnational crime the U.N. Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime -far less resource-intensive/politically risky than developing long-term strategies to address labor migration aspects of the problems/puts aside state responsibility
Sexual Libertarians (SRF)
-Individuals freely determine the meaning of "sex" for themselves -"sex" is to a woman whatever she wants it to be -its meaning lies with the individual who can claim/forfeit what sex means -sexual power is removed from any social or political context.
carceral feminism
-context: Bernstein reading -the commitment of prostitution abolitionist feminist activists to a law and order agenda -a drift from the welfare state to the carceral state as the enforcement apparatus for feminist goals
Hostile Worlds Understanding
-context; Zelizer reading -love is incompatible with financial interests -true love exists in a way that is blind to financial consideration -any contact between the two spheres inevitably leads to moral contamination/degradation -places rigid moral boundaries between market and intimate domains -it condemns any intersection of money and intimacy, including sexual intimacy, as dangerously corrupting
Sex Wars
-acrimonious disputes among feminists over the role of sexuality in women's liberation/oppression that began in the 1980s -during 80s, sex work/prostitution became a central trope over the meaning and function of sex; a war of position -defined disputes over how human trafficking should be defined in the UN Protocol -the word you use to talk about the selling of sex for money can be very controversial and signals membership on one side or the other of the debate -radical feminists view heterosexual intercourse/sex as form of oppression against women (usually lesbian) -the prostitute is a victim and symbol of women's abject powerlessness under male objectification/domination -prostitute -sex radical feminists view heterosexual intercourse/sex as potentially a source of pleasure/subversion/power for women -sex worker -debates center on questions of agency
Sexual Economy
-an organization of social relationships that involve exchanges of sex acts/erotic behaviors and material resources necessary for the reproduction of everyday life -these material resources can include money/gifts/food/ caregiving/financial support/affection -some for pleasure or procreation -which are legitimate/moral/legal? -what regulates them?
Batis AWARE
-context: Anolin and Javier reading -a group of clients and former clients established Association of Women in Action for Rights and Empowerment to develop, run, and advocate for their own agenda -former clients learned to serve as peer counselors for newer returnees, in part by sharing their own experiences, but also by accompanying them for medical visits, helping them in reintegration activities, and supporting their involvement in advocacy activities -fostered organizational independence for the community, sponsoring trainings and workshops to help the women develop capabilities as public speakers, advocates, writers, project managers, and peer counselors -also supported the development of cooperative livelihood projects, including starting a sewing shop and vigil candle shop -later established burger stand/small restaurant/small laundry shop which helped some members become more financially stable -created theatre troupe which was deliberate vehicle for political action, aiming to educate gov officials about patterns of abuse about broader shared forms of gender-based political economic vulnerability and exploitation that needed to change -engaged in legislative advocacy fighting for migrants' rights
rights-based framework
-context: Anolin and Javier reading -aimed at both individually and collectively empowering its clients -to be empowered the women needed "to be aware of their social situation and their rights, especially knowing how to fight for them" -stark contrast to most UN-sponsored empowerment programs that are part of the UN fight against human trafficking and also those sponsored by many large NGOs in the US, which tend to focus on "individual empowerment" -by having collective identity/communicating shared experiences, the organization hoped that women would see themselves in larger social/political processes and work to address the transformation of social conditions that perpetuate the migration of Filipinos for overseas work/increasing feminization of Philippine labor migration -former clients learned to serve as peer counselors for newer returnees
anti "White Slavery" campaigns
-context: Bernstein reading -White-Slave Traffic Act (Mann Act): one of several acts of protective legislation aimed at moral reform during the progressive era -made it a felony to engage in interstate or foreign commerce transport of "any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose" -intended to address prostitution, "immorality", and human trafficking for the purposes of prostitution but ambiguous language of "immorality" allowed for criminalization of consensual sexual behavior -Anti-White Slavery campaigns were expressions of moral panic regarding immigration and changing gender norms -desire to "save" white women from unscrupulous men who forced women into prostitution -efforts connected to the Social Purity Movement led by early feminists who sought to improve the treatment of women/children but often by expecting them to adhere to Christian upper-class norms -Stead wrote series focused on child prostitution, including the abduction, procurement and sale of young English virgins to Continental "pleasure palaces"
carceral paradigms of justice
-context: Bernstein reading -justice comes to be defined as "putting the bad guy away" not in terms of creating a just and equal society for all -sees this especially in the work of International Justice Mission (IJM): "Trafficking is not a poverty issue. It's a law enforcement issue." -situates new-abolitionist politics in terms of neoliberal sexual agenda that locates social problems in deviant individuals rather than mainstream institutions/seeks social remedies through criminal justice interventions rather than through a redistributive welfare state/advocates for the beneficence of the privileged rather than empowerment of the oppressed -embrace of the third-world trafficking victim as a modern cause offers these young evangelical women a means to engage directly in a sex-saturated culture without being "contaminated" by it/to enter the world of the postmodern brothel while enduring no significant threat to one's own moral status or social position -Evangelical anti-trafficking efforts thus extend activist trends that are also increasingly prevalent elsewhere, advocating a form of political engagement that is consumer- and media-friendly, saturated in the tropes and imagery of the very sexual culture that it aims to oppose"(p. 140)9 -no longer framing the problem of human trafficking in terms of the broader dynamics of globalization/gendered labor/migration but rather as humanitarian issue that global capitalists can help combat
rescue and restore model of activism/logic
-context: Berstein Reading -male employees of the organization go undercover as potential clients to investigate brothels, partnering with local law enforcement to rescue underage and allegedly unwilling brothel occupants and deliver them to state-sponsored or faith-based rehabilitation facilities -model harkens back to the anti-"White Slavery" campaigns of the late 19th and early 20th centuries -a new group of highly educated and relatively affluent evangelicals have pursued some of the most active and passionate campaigning around sexual slavery and human trafficking -men are coaxed into participating in women's/other humanitarian issues by being granted role of heroic rescuers and saviors
3 P's of the UN Trafficking Protocol and TVPA
-context: Chuang -Prosecution, Protection, and Prevention -Prosecution and protection occur after-the-fact of violence -most efforts to fight human trafficking focus primarily on assisting trafficked persons/survivors after they have experienced violence/abuse/exploitation -focus is on stopping the crime of human trafficking by arresting/prosecuting traffickers -to receive a T-visa in the US, an individual must agree to testify against their trafficker -prevention efforts have until now tended to focus on information sharing and warnings -strong criminal justice response is a critical component of any effective global counter-trafficking strategy -counter trafficking strategies must target the underlying conditions that impel people to accept dangerous labor migration assignments -Governments have been deeply reluctant to view trafficking in this broader frame, that is, as a problem of migration/discrimination, and gender-based violence. They have tended to view trafficking as a 'law and order' problem requiring an aggressive criminal justice response
"fee tail "or "entail"
-context: Downton Abbey -a form of trust that restricts the inheritance/sale of an estate and instead causes it to pass automatically to an heir determined by settlement deed (in this case the successor to the title of Earl of Grantham) -only have daughters so entire estate will go to next male who will inherit the title Earl of Grantham
Trauma Porn
-context: Kara Reading; parts of book are trauma porn -academic scholarship, art, and media created around the exploitation of marginalized people's trauma -writers or media producers sensationalize these people's pain as they build their own reputations/careers/identities -observers watch/read about this pain from a safe distance away
Indentured mobility
-context: Parreñas reading -Filipina hostesses' labor migration inhabits middle zone between human trafficking and labor migration -this paradoxical position frames their labor migration as one of simultaneous progress and subjugation -financial gains afforded by labor migration come at expense of their freedom -blurs the distinction between human trafficking and labor migration by recognizing Filipina hostesses as labor migrants who face severe structural constraints -this framework does not dismiss their susceptibility to forced labor but it rejects universal claims of their slavery as well as assumptions about the inevitability of forced labor for indentured workers
History of Hostess Bars in Japan
-context: Parreñas reading -early hostess bars catered to elites/wealthy businessmen/male politicians and were important sites for settai (business entertaining) -foreign workers hired to replace Japanese women in what were usually considered to be lower ranking bars -Filipino women comprised the largest group of foreign women employed as entertainers and Filipina hostess bars came to occupy a particular niche within sex industry -shift to employ Filipina women in these bars was part of a larger trend throughout Japan that can be linked to the U.S. military presence in Okinawa -owners of bars in the region began to employ Filipina women, who due to their migration status were more vulnerable/would work for lower wages to serve the U.S. military who remained on bases in the region -Filipina women who came to work in clubs in Japan with government-issued "entertainer visas" were technically hired as cultural performers -long tradition of cultural dance performance in Philippines -during 70s, Filipina cultural dancers/performers were hired as entertainment on U.S. cruise ships/ big hotels/tourist spots in Japan -this tradition of cultural performance offered a precedent for issuing entertainer visas to growing number of Filipina women who entered Japan to work in hostess clubs in 1980-90s -Filipinas are hired as cultural dancers/technically not supposed to have direct forms of contact with customers -they are often expected to do things in the clubs that go far beyond their permitted duties -there is little to no regulation of this work -a women's experience in a club will depend on the owner and "mama-sans" expectations/demands -Most know that they will engage inillicit flirtations with their customers -Contact between a hostess and a customer is illegal for those with entertainer visas -And Batis has helped Filipina women who returned from Japan in distressed conditions
Open or floating signifier
-context: Piot Reading; children arguing for human right to be trafficked -words or symbols without set referents, so that they don't point to any actual object or agreed upon meaning -words/symbols that mean different things to different people and stand for many or even any signified -words/symbols that mean whatever their interpreters want them to mean -EX: American Flag -human rights is an open signifier that travels in and out of local struggles and has given voice to silenced constituencies/also generated new alignments and synergies -human rights is culturally productive so it creates new cultural meanings/worlds
deskilling
-context: Pratt Reading, migrants experience in Canada -when women lose their skills during the years they work as caregivers -when migrant workers with labor skills/advanced degrees in their home countries find their skills or degrees not recognized in host communities and must take unskilled/lower-skilled jobs
money exchange
-context: Ramberg -different cultures have had (and continue to have) practices of economic exchange that have accompanied engagement/marriage -dowry: money or property that a wife or wife's family gives to her husband when the wife and husband marry -can be a form of early inheritance -associated with "class" (a way of maintaining a woman at her natal family's class level after marriage and, in some cases, helping ensure she will be well treated (lest claims of return are made in the case of a separation) (a form of wealth transfer) -bride wealth: payment made by the groom or his kin to the kin of the wife in order to ratify the marriage -can be a form of compensation to the family for the loss of the woman's labor, but it also helps consolidate good relationships between them as an act of good will and a promise that she will be well cared for -it is a way of knitting together families, because the bride wealth can be demanded back if things do not go well in the marriage -the bride wealth may be paid in one sum or in installments over a period of time and bride service (the husband working for the wife's family)may also be part of it
Devadasi
-context: Ramberg Reading -servant of the deity -a pan-Indian Sanskrit term used to refer to women dedicated to deities in a variety of regionally distinct practices -some date back to the ninth century C.E -supposed to devote life to arts of song and dance -life degenerated to becoming prostitutes -came from landless or small landholding Dalit families eking out subsistence in an area prone to drought/largely dependent upon dry land agriculture -give/tie daughters to Yellamma in order to resolve trouble that the goddess can send -affliction/hardship are referred to as Yellamma's trouble prosperity/fertility of all kinds are the result of her generosity -neither necessarily more liberated nor more violated than gandullavalu (married women); the negative and positive possibilities of their lives take shape within a different register of value than that of respectability, that of auspiciousness -do nothing to fundamentally reorganize hierarchies of caste and exploitative land relations
Marcos/Aquino Regime
-context: Rodrigues Reading; encouraged overseas labor migration to bring foreign currency into economy -ruled as dictator under martial law with violence/oppression -constitutional authoritarianism that was infamous for corruption/cronyism/extravagance/brutality -fully supported by US government/World Bank/IMF -aggressive program of grandiose infrastructure development funded by foreign debt that led to inflation/unrest -shifted to export led economy but sugar market fell apart -coupled with oil crisis /Marcos' spending left Philippine economy into tailspin with huge amount of death -desperate for foreign currency to maintain debt payments and pay back loans -Economic Plan: -1) promoting tourism (sex tourism) -2) establishing export processing zones (EPZs) -3) promoting overseas labor migration (developing a labor export policy); migrants have to remit money home to their families but have to pay taxes/fees to work abroad as OCW's -regime overthrown in 1986 -Benigno Aquino Jr. became notable critic of the Marcos regime and became popular in the US -mass uprising supported by Catholic Church and defections from the Philippine military against Marcos spurred after assassination -People Power or EDSA (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue) Revolution occurred -Corazon Cojuangco Aquino took over as president -debt servicing was 44% of the country's budget -underlying structures of inequality were not changed -Cojuangco's owned sugarcane plantation -plantation was supposed to be distributed to landless farmers under national agrarian reform program known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in 1988 -stock distribution option (SDO) was implemented in 1989 giving the farm workers corporate stocks as an alternative to land distribution -land redistribution process was stalled by Temporary Restraining Order and because Cori Aquino's son Noynoy Aquino was president from 2010-2016
brain drain
-context: Rodriguez Reading -emigration of educated professionals from Philippines to US -between 1946 and late 1960s there were quotas on migration but Filipino immigrants most of whom were members of the U.S. armed forces or relatives of earlier immigrants came -US also opened the door for predominantly educated professionals such as doctors/nurses/engineers invited to fill labor shortages -More recent migration begins in the 1970s with the Marcos regime, which, together with the World Bank and the IMF, encouraged overseas labor migration to bring much needed foreign currency into the Philippine economy
Problems with the H-2 Visa Program
-context: SLPC reading; exploited workers -Problems: -1) Recruitment: begins with initial recruitment in home country which leaves them in precarious economic state/extremely vulnerable to abuse by employers; recruiters charge high fees to the worker; workers who live in poverty must obtain high-interest loans to come up with money; recruiters sometimes require them to leave collateral -2) Visas: most fundamental problem with guestworker programs is that the employer decides whether a worker can come to the US and whether he can stay; balance of power is skewed so disproportionately in favor of employer that worker's rights are nullified; employer can fire the worker/call government/declare the worker to be illegal - 3) Wages: wage theft: minimum wage violations, underreporting of hours, failure to pay overtime, and making unlawful deductions from workers' pay; problem is that the worker is not free to shop his labor to any other employer - 4) Contract Violations: situations that leads to workers not being able to earn as much as they were promised; misclassification - 5) Injuries: fatality rates for the agriculture and forestry industries are 7 times the national average; all too often are denied access to appropriate medical care and benefits - 6) Labor Brokers: obtaining workers indirectly through a labor contractor puts workers at greater risk of abuse and makes enforcement of their rights even more difficult -7) Housing: quality of housing varies widely and is often seriously substandard/dangerous
Sex Workers Rights Movement
-context: Sex Radical Feminists -a collection of movement on a global scale to recognize sex work as a legitimate labor form -sex workers' rights activists generally support decriminalization of sex work over legalization (which often leads to more regulation and places control in the hands of male business owners as opposed to sex workers themselves [who tend to be women]) -big pushback by sex workers' rights activists against the anti-trafficking movement because part of movement has been spearheaded by anti-prostitution activists (believe all sex workers are prostituted)
Nothing But Understanding
-context: Zelizer reading -intimate relations involving monetary transfers are (a) nothing but another rationally conducted exchange, indistinguishable from equivalent price-making markets; b) nothing but another expression of prevailing cultural values; or c) nothing but coercion -one arguing that intimate relations are nothing but exchange relations of a special sort; another arguing that intimate relations are nothing but straightforward expressions of general values or ideological scripts, regardless of what economic connection they may entail; a third arguing that intimate relations are nothing but the outcome of coercive structures -another way of thinking about the relationships between intimacy and money that contradicts the "hostile worlds" view but does not get at what she wants us to understand in terms of the "differentiated ties" through which we negotiate these relationships
model of differentiated ties
-context: Zelizer reading, an approach to PoI -assumes that intimate relations involving monetary transfers include a variety of social relations each marked by pattern of payment -distinguishes this approach from the two more commonplace ways that we tend to think about relationships between intimacy/money
purchase of intimacy
-context: Zelizer reading; combine intimacy/monetary transfers -the frequent accusation that people use money to buy intimate relations and the grip of intimacy on the forms and meanings of payments -intertwining of intimacy and financing
neoliberalism
-form of economic liberalism embraced by many governments today that support economic liberalizations, unfettered free trade and open markets, privatization, deregulation, and enhancing the role of the private sector -letting the private sector replace the public sector
the politics of "ick"
-idea that just because you think something is "icky" you can't believe another person would want to do it
Anti-sex Feminists (RF)
-more radical and believe that sex itself must be abolished -Sex itself is an enactment of male supremacy -in sex, the woman is always a *****; she is always in a passive, objectified condition -need to recreate female desire outside everything we know/recreate what bodily pleasures would look like in nonpatriarchal universe
culture of benevolent paternalism
-takes issue with the ways that the migration is regulated through protectionist laws that endeavor to "professionalize" going to Japan as an "entertainer" while requiring training and certification -part of the problem because it means that the women must take out considerable debt and go through many "middlemen" to access these jobs -this visa category has become even more strictly regulated in response to UN Protocol -Filipina women have found themselves turning to other even more precarious routes to come to Japan
Pro-"positive sex" feminists (RF)
-want positive sex free from patriarchy -positive sexuality is expressed in passionate love; is female-centered, takes place in a committed relationship, and involves mutual pleasure -some sexual practices are "male"/patriarchal (promiscuity, genital sexuality, sexual objectification) and should be eliminated -Prostitution as foil of positive sexuality -patriarchal abuse of sex and literal/symbolic violence toward women -must abolish prostitution to prevent further contamination of our minds and to free women from the burdens of sexual objectification
Feminist Sex Radicals (SRF)
-we live in a sexist/patriarchal society, so understandings/experiences of sex cannot but be tied to structures of inequality -outraged at the existing sexual order -see its meaning as emerging for individuals through processes of struggle/negotiation/collaboration -means of "sex" for women are socially constrained but not determined -prostitution can be a legitimate form of work/way that women express agency and make lives for themselves within social worlds that are shaped by different forms of sexism
Modern Heroes, Modern Slaves
Main Points: -Philippines is a source as well as destination and transit country for men/women/children who are subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor -labor niches are geographically specific: in different parts of the world, migrant workers do different kinds of work -not all migrant laborers' experiences fit criteria of "human trafficking" even if significant number do wind up in conditions of "forced labor" depending on how that is defined -Filipina migrants faced a range of violations: being underpaid, being overworked, having their wages withheld, being forced to work against their will, being emotionally and physically abused -women were coming home in coffins, clearly beaten and stabbed, and they were claimed to be "suicides" by the governments of the countries where they were working -Philippine government did not protest or step in
Brennan Reading: Thoughts on Finding and Assisting Individuals in Forced Labor in the USA
Main Points: -US TVPA has a provision that allows trafficked persons to remain in the US with a T-visa so many remain in the US -Life after trafficking is series of private daily struggles -their daily concerns about work, housing and schooling resemble those of other migrants (connection between formerly trafficked persons' and other migrants' experiences with resettlement -particularly with labor issues) -assert that to begin to understand brutal forms of labor exploitation is with the everyday labor practices in work sites where migrants work -forced labor exists today in part because a range of other exploitative labor conditions exist/are allowed to proliferate -when exploitation is norm, forced labor can flourish/blend into background of abuse -trafficked work under the same conditions as their co-workers -what distinguishes severely exploited workers from those who experienced less-severe forms of exploitation is belief that they or their families will be hurt if they leave their trafficker -place formerly trafficked persons' situations of extreme abuse in trafficking/experiences in new worksites after trafficking along a continuum of exploitative labor practices that migrants experience in worksites throughout USA -increased efforts to arrest/deport undocumented migrants, and increased efforts to 'rescue' US citizens from work in the sex industry made it difficult to find/ assist foreign nationals in situations of forced labor -attention diverted away relationship between migrants' undocumented status and exploitative labor conditions through subcontracting -T visa does not render trafficking survivors immune from exploitative labor conditions that many migrants in low-wage labor sectors face. -typically enter low-wage/insecure/exploitative work even after being trafficked -challenges they face in the short term threaten to preclude opportunities for economic security/mobility in the long-term -more meaningful rights-based alliances with community partners needed to address the needs of migrant workers -migrants' rights organizations around before TVPA (2000) are well-situated both to find trafficked/facilitate migrant activists in taking leadership roles -fight against trafficking is tied up with the struggle for migrants' rights and greater workplace protections for migrants
Ramberg Reading: "When the Devi Is Your Husband: Sacred Marriage and Sexual Economy in South India"
Main Points: -contrasts the situation of married Dalit women in the village (gandullavalu) with situations of the devadasis -conventionally married women live with members of their husband's natal kin, and their children fall in his patriline -devadasis are entitled to inherit land/pass the family name on to their children/function as head of the extended family household -they fulfill the obligations/claim some of the privileges of sons -devadasis do not take other husbands but may have patrons/work in brothels/remain celibate -they remain primarily attached to their natal families and remain in natal villages -empowered to make claims on resources of dominant-caste devotees whose offerings provide the means of livelihood for her family -a strategic financially oriented transaction and about the continuation of forms of care over generations -explains that the notion that these women were "prostitutes" only developed during the colonial era -conflation of the devadasi with prostitute has history in the colonial era standardization of marriage and emergence of the common prostitute -Multiple nonwife, precolonial categories were socially and legally recognized in precolonial contexts across the Indian subcontinent -lives of village-based devadasi's and village-based married women are indistinguishable -both generally maintain a lifelong exclusive orientation toward one man/rely on their relationship with that man for economic survival/neither takes cash payments for sexual acts -chief differences between them have to do with domiciling practices/lineages/respectability -means for Dalits to increase the value of daughters/way of producing daughters as sons entitled to inherit land/obligated to support their families -when they are given to men, the wealth they produce through productive, reproductive, or sexual labor flows out of the natal family; by contrast, when they are given to the devi, these forms of wealth accrue to the natal family -accounts of devadasis as women uniquely free of patriarchal constraint and tragic narratives of them as victims of unrelenting sexual exploitation -notion that marriage has ever been uncontaminated by material interests has long been challenged in the work of social scientists who documented a range of forms of material transactions accompanying nuptial rites, including bride wealth/dowry -presence of material interests in the context of sexual activity is not a necessarily/sufficient indicator of coercion/exploitation -through marriage practices in many different cultures women have been traded as objects to cement relationships between men -Conjugality is not more a guarantor of intimacy, equality, and the absence of coercion than the selling of sex is, by necessity, devoid of affection ,mutual regard, and willing participation
Piot Reading: The "Right" to be Trafficked
Main Points: -human rights are an open signifier -he is looking at how it comes to be used by Togolese youth to claim a right to be trafficked -interested in an NGO initiative to stop the migration of Togolese children to Nigeria -according to these NGO's, the work they do there is a form of enslavement and the children are "trafficked" -but children want to go and argue that it is their "human right" to go -calls for democratic elections circulated the term "human rights" and it entered everyday parlance -at first it meant the struggle against dictatorial authority but has taken on a life of its own -youth starting appropriating the term to challenge parental authority -started to be used in even more paradoxical way by teens who were going to work abroad and were being identified as "trafficked" by various organizations/NGOs w/in and outside of Africa -Paradox: In the context of the NGO's claims, these children are arguing for the "right" to be trafficked -should the children be able to make their own decisions as agents? -"It's our poverty—the fact that we can't offer them anything better—that is at the root of all this." -violations: a child's labor is exploited by middlemen and Nigerian landowners who enrich themselves on the backs of Togolese children's 16-hour days/children disappear entirely; Kabre households also lose the labor and heft of their most able workers -returnees are sapped of life force/unable to cultivate and girls are bringing back AIDS -local custom of interfamilial fostering: the new international order is intervening in longstanding familial practices/ reworking understandings of childhood/family/work/exploitation -exploitative labor conditions for migrants abroad affect migrant workers/also have serious, detrimental implications for their communities back home
Zelizer Reading: The Purchase of Intimacy
Main Points: -low-income/welfare single moms' relationships with men who in different ways financially contribute to their households -these women distinguish their relationships with these men on the basis of their systems of payment -line-in boyfriend who help pay versus one-night stands who pay cash to the women -different forms of intimate relationships involve different forms of monetary transfer -we define our relationships in terms of appropriateness of different kinds of monetary transfer -people routinely differentiate meaningful social relations and use different payment systems to create/define/affirm/challenge/overturn distinctions -argument challenges some of our assumptions about the distinctions between prostitution and other kinds of intimate relationships -regularly combine intimate relationships with monetary transfers and we define the nature of these relationships in different ways -wants us to see the meaningful/relational/deeply social character of distinctions between payment systems, including payment systems in intimate relationships such as bride price/dowry -each payment symbolizes a different kind of relationship between sexual partners -look at what forms of monetary transfer attach to particular varieties of erotic relations -To label a payment as a gift (tip/bribe/charity/expression of esteem) rather than an entitlement (pension/allowance/rightful share of gains) or compensation (wages/salary bonus/commission) is to make claims about the relationship between payer and payee -accepting money in exchange for services, even intimate services, is not intrinsically degrading
Anolin and Javier: Batis Center for Women/Batis AWARE
Main Points: -organization provides direct assistance in the form of psychosocial counseling/welfare services including helping clients deal with trauma of their experiences/helping them find housing and jobs when they return to Japan -felt failure, disappointment, regret, fear, and uncertainty and these women faulted themselves for both the violence/abuse/exploitation that they experienced in Japan and the challenges that they confronted -established a Women Empowerment Program (WEP) based on observations of clients' need -many wanted to remigrate to find work abroad because they could not support themselves and their families in the Philippines through gov assistance programs -a stark contrast to most UN-sponsored empowerment programs that are part of the UN fight against human trafficking and also those sponsored by many large NGOs in the US, which tend to focus on "individual empowerment" (focusing only on supporting the individual for example by offering temporary business training even though many don't have the capital to open businesses) -RRATVJ assistance helped them temporarily find housing and a means of economic support upon their return and they had depended on partnering NGOs in the Philippines for counselling, sometimes for years, to deal with the trauma of their experiences in Japan -benefits were short-lived for most beneficiaries, speaking to the precarity of these women's lives even after having received temporary reintegration assistance
Tizon/Rafael Readings: My Family's Slave
Main Points: -persistence of the hacienda system combined with the newer labor export system are the backstories to Lola's life -"Traditions persisted under different guises, even after the U.S. took control of the islands in 1898. Today even the poor can have utusans or katulongs ("helpers") or kasambahays ("domestics"), as long as there are people even poorer. The pool is deep." -cascades/chains of violence both in Philippines and US -another example of how severe forms of labor exploitation are hidden in plain sight -He lies when his friend asks who Lola is pointing out how they yell at her: -"Admitting the truth would have meant exposing us all. We spent our first decade in the country learning the ways of the new land and trying to fit in. Having a slave did not fit. Having a slave gave me grave doubts about what kind of people we were, what kind of place we came from. Whether we deserved to be accepted. I was ashamed of it, including my complicity." -"My parents had borrowed money for the move to the U.S., and then borrowed more in order to stay." -After decades, "she didn't know any other way to be." -kinds of dependencies that exist between master and slave in both directions; the master is dependent on the slave and yet she cannot face that truth so she denies it; she tells herself other stories about that relationship: "The 'slave' deserves this treatment (because she is lesser, poor, other, etc.)." "The 'slave' likes it." "I am helping the 'slave.'" "The 'slave' is family." And so on...
Francia Reading: A History of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos to Filipinos
Main Points: -relationships between the US and the postcolonial Philippines ultimately led to the current situation of labor migration from the Philippines -friars: became very wealthy and powerful and power struggles developed with the colonial establishment; accumulated land through royal quest donations, inheritance from the pious, and purchase with money from church fees, trade, foreclosures, and force -encomenderos: engaged in a number of abuses including withholding the friar's share of tributes -friars charged parishioners exorbitant fees for religious items and rituals; also had relationships with many indigenous women and raped some -principalia: those indigenous elites who served as agents of the colonial apparatus who also took advantage of the privatization of land acquiring individual and legal titles to it -rents raised almost every year and tenant farmers could not do anything about it so a lot of people were very unhappy -many who rose to economic power during this time were Chinese mestizos who rose in part because they gained control of trade routes between Manila and Central Luzon -roundabout trade route led to cultural exchange between Mexico and the Philippines -Manila became prosperous city through trade; most Spanish lived in Intramuros: The Walled City -Chinese traders and artisans also profited -As the ports opened up and commerce increased, they accumulated more wealth; economy became highly dependent upon them -Chinese mestizos came to control the trade between Manila and the interiors and to acquire land -Spanish encouraged Chinese to convert to Catholicism; many Chinese men married indigenous women and over time the multi-cultural Chinese mestizo group developed -visits/attacks by Chinese prompted Spanish to conclude that there was an imminent invasion from China in the making; local Chinese outnumbered Spaniards by twenty to one and Spanish authorities feared they would join invading forces -Spaniards enacted policies designed to control the residents of the islands by means of segregation/cultural assimilation such as limiting the number of resident Chinese residents to around 6,000 -Philippine war of independence against Spain and defeats the Spanish declaring independence from Spain in 1898 -Spanish-American War starts five months later -in 1899, the U.S. Congress votes to annex the Philippines -Philippine-American War brutal and ugly -US Army turned to a "total-war" doctrine; civilians were given identification/forced into concentration camps with publicly announced deadline after which all persons found outside of camps without identification would be shot on sight; thousands of civilians died in these camps due to poor conditions -U.S. formally occupies the Philippines from 1902 - 1942 when the U.S. forces surrender to Japanese forces -after WWII big move toward decolonization and US ceded its sovereignty over the Philippines in 1946
Rodriguez Reading: The Emergence of Labor Brokerage: U.S. Colonial Legacies in the Philippines.
Main Points: -remittances by unofficial including illegal channels are estimated by the Asian Bankers Association to be 30 to 40% higher than official figure -Philippine migrants are short-term employees that labor-receiving countries source their workers from -workers caught between two governments: their "host" governments who do not guarantee their rights as guest workers (especially if undocumented) and their home government that is in the pocket of their host government and also financially dependent on their labor -this is how situations of extreme labor violation and "human trafficking" persist -nearly 10% working abroad -top occupations of these workers are (in order): household service workers; waiters, cleaners and related workers; nurses; professional caregivers and caretakers; laborers/helpers; plumbers and pipe fitters; electrical wiremen; welders and flame-cutters; building caretakers -the government is dependent on the fees from training and processing their travel; they support tons of businesses and family members in the Philippines -the labor brokerage system in the Philippines is in large part a result of the U.S. colonial legacy in the Philippines -the presence of colonies ensured the metropole a supply of cheap labor -relations between the Philippines and the U.S. over the past half century have overwhelmingly served to benefit the interests of the U.S. government and U.S. government-friendly Filipino elites who have created political dynasties -these relationships have often been to the detriment of rural peasants and people from ordinary middle-class/poor backgrounds -an incredible and radical tradition of activism in the Philippines
Pratt Reading: Families Apart: Migrant Mothers and the Conflicts of Labor and Love
Main Points: -she asks does the granting of permanent residency at the end of the caregivers' term justify the exploitation/abuse they suffer? -Canadians took pride in the live-in caretaker program, believing it was generous/humanitarian -the program denies domestic workers fundamental mobility rights/rights to live with immediate family members -the requirement to live in their employers' homes creates the conditions of serfdom -migrant workers' perpetual vulnerability to deportation makes them unlikely to exercise whatever formal rights they may hold -LCP seals women's fate as well-educated cadre of lowly paid/vulnerable employees (working long hours in increasingly privatized health-care industry -few of them achieved upward mobility due to no credentials -problems continued generationally with children stuck in unskilled labor positions -problems: parents' separation for almost entire lives of their children (lack of attention to children education)/deskilling single mothers to point that they must work in two or three jobs in order to survive -the necessity for individuals to seek a living wage across national borders is the problem -Filipino women are sacrificed for vitality of Canadian population (importation of women from the global South under conditions of indentured servitude to care for Canadian children, seniors, disabled where conditions are unacceptable to national citizens) -a "relational" definition of freedom": the price that modern freedom exacts from those who lack the resources to practice it: those 'others' in relation to whom our freedom is always defined -new revisions have been added to the program since including employers having to cover costs of the caregivers' travel to Canada/workplace safety insurance/recruiting fees
Downton Abbey Episode
Main Points: -show focuses on the family of Lord Crawley, Earl of Grantham, and the current lord of Downton Abbey, a large landed estate in the English countryside -Titles such as Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount or Baron are hereditary and bound to remain in particular families; they were initially (and still can be) tied to large landed estates -titles tied to large landed estates and not heritable by daughters -only has daughters -marriage was arranged because Downton Abbey was struggling financially and needed an infusion of cash -through marriage, her large dowry was invested into the estate, keeping it afloat -in exchange she got on aristocratic title and her family thereby got incorporated into British aristocratic society
Kara Reading: Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery
Main Points: -the enormity/pervasiveness of sex trafficking is a direct result of the immense profits derived from selling inexpensive sex around the world -sex trafficking is one of the ugliest contemporary actualizations of global capitalism produced by the harmful inequalities spread by the process of economic globalization -ending sex trafficking requires an attack on the industry's immense profitability and a radical shift in the conduct of economic globalization -professor says we need multi-scalar solutions that can address the geographical/cultural/historical conditions in which violence emerge -focused on the roles that the IMF/transnational capitalist processes have played in countries -Will the problem of "human trafficking" be solved for an individual once they are "rescued" from a "sex trafficking" situation? -Issues: -strong critiques of the "savior" or "hero" approach to sex trafficking he takes -ignore the long history of feminist organizing around the issue and especially that outside the US -take issue with is the sensationalization of women in the sex industry as helpless victims in much of this writing -a very anemic understanding of gender about which much sophisticated social analysis has been written for decades -says women raped with impunity and efforts to combat sex trafficking remain inadequate/misdirected because: -1) ST poorly understood -2) underfunded/uncoordinated organizations -3) systematic business/economic analysis of the "industry" need to be conducted to identify strategic points of intervention -problems with all the above -Kara's research strategies are problematic -interviews were conducted inside a sex establishment/at a shelter for trafficking victims -never went back to the same brothel more than once -individuals felt forced to discuss matters they would rather forget/many interviewers carelessly published info without protecting identity/security of former slave -argument is a-geographical and completely ignores how geography matters/makes a difference to the forms of violence he discusses -assumes there is a single "human trafficking" industry that spans the globe because of "global poverty" -ignores how labor abuse/exploitation are part of lots of different industries -ignores how cultural practices/ideas about gender vary geographically
Bernstein Reading: The Sexual Politics of the New Abolitionism
Main Points: -the nature of what is purchased in commercial sexual encounters is new -sex workers are increasingly paid to offer their clients is an erotic experience premised upon the performance of authentic interpersonal connection -boundaries between intimacy and commerce and between public life and private have been radically redrawn -"bounded authenticity" suggests that what is being sold and purchased is an authentic emotional and physical connection and to indicate that this exchange is temporarily/emotionally bounded -self-identified modern day abolitionists in their struggle to combat what they see as a diverse yet intertwined array of human rights abuses -consider how it is that prostitution has come to occupy the center of an ever-spiraling array of faith based and secular activist agendas, human rights initiatives, and legal instruments -although the TVPA officially defines the crime of human trafficking to include forced labor as well as forced sex in terms of current U.S. enforcement priorities, media attention, and NGO practice, the forced prostitution of women/girls constitutes the paradigmatic instance of what "modern-day slavery" is assumed to be -sees similarities between earlier movement and contemporary evangelical prostitution-abolitionist campaigns -approach leaves intact the social structures that drive low-income women (and many men) into patterns of risky migration and exploitative informal sector employment that would qualify as HT
Parreñas Reading: Illicit Flirtations: Labor, Migration, and Sex Trafficking in Tokyo
Main Points: -the spectrum of experiences and the multiple forms of vulnerability that these workers can face -overwhelming majority of the women with whom she spokes were cis-gender and from economically disadvantaged backgrounds -we still hear unsubstantiated cries of their forced prostitution from both journalists and academics which have led to their identification as sexually trafficked persons in the U.S. Department of State's Trafficking in Persons Report -type of club was often assumed to be a site of forced prostitution but not true -author is taking issue with the notion that all Filipina women working in hostess bars in Japan are forced into prostitution -according to the 2004 and 2005 TIP Reports, Filipina hostesses in Japan constituted largest group of sex-trafficked persons in the world -serve and entertain customers and to perform emotional labor to convince men that they cared for them -dōhan quotas: offered financial incentives and penalties, not unlike commissions, for getting men to, respectively, order a certain number of drinks, request the women's presence at their tables, and arrange to take them on 'dates. -bc of quotas, Filipina hostesses had strong financial incentives to encourage customers to spend money at their bar -also under financial pressure to get customers to like them so that these men would request their presence and take them on dates -slow dance, flirt, and cuddle and efforts were not limited to the space of the clubs -argues women with whom she worked were not trafficked/coerced -most know that they will engage in illicit flirtations with their customers -migrant entertainers are not trafficked persons or individuals coerced to do hostess work but instead labor migrants who face severe structural constraints -shift from viewing forced labor as individual problem that occurs randomly to seeing it as structurally situated phenomenon that occurs in the context of labor migration regimes -middlemen brokers including those who have been legally sanctioned to protect Filipina entertainers in the process of migration, and not club owners are the ones who subject them to peonage/indentured servitude -legal system of migration forces them to migrate under these conditions -see servitude abroad as a much better option than their other choice of immobility in the Philippines -binary we currently have for thinking about the migration of Filipina hostesses—either free subject (migrant) or enslaved subject (trafficked person)—fail to capture the complex dynamics of coercion and choice that embody their labor experience -dismantle the binary framework that separates these two distinct migratory flows/construct a middle ground that recognizes agency of migrants without dismissing the severe structural constraints that could hamper their freedom/autonomy -visa category has become more strictly regulated in response to the UN Protocol, Filipina women have found themselves turning to other even more precarious routes to come to Japan
SPLC Reading:
Main Points: -there are even more severe problems with guestworker programs in the US (referring to people who come legally on H-2 visas) -H-2 program provides temporary farmworkers/non-farm laborers for a variety of U.S. industries such as landscaping/agriculture/construction -claim these workers are systematically exploited/abused -America relies on stream of temporary migrant laborers -unlike with chattel slavery, it is the worker who bears cost of his travel and access to a labor market so the employer loses very little if they leave (connection to Steinfeld pec. vs non-pec.) -instead of if workers are "free" or "enslaved" we can ask: What is justification of labor conditions?/Are measures of labor regulation/control acceptable and why?/Are measures of labor protection adequate/efficient and why?
Parían
context: Francia Reading, development of trade center -in 1581, the Spanish colonial government had created an area adjacent to Intramuros that served as official marketplace and residence for unconverted sangleys (Chinese residents) and became the commercial center of the city
ilustrado
context: Franica Reading; contributed to revolution against colonial Spanish -upper-middle class and upper-class families send sons to Spain and other parts of Europe for education -exposed to liberal ideas in the metropole, began to speak out against the abuses of the Spanish friars/colonial system -some formed secret revolutionary group to oppose Spanish rule -execution of José Rizal, author of books criticizing colonial structure in the Philippines and the abuses of the friars, set revolution into motion -Katipunan: a secret revolutionary society that had formed in 1892 after Rizal's exile—led by Andrés Bonifacio embarks on a war of independence against Spain and defeats the Spanish, declaring independence from Spain in1898 -Emilio Aguinaldo becomes the first president of the Philippines until 1901 when he is captured by U.S. forces
Chinese Mestizos
context: Franica Reading; economic development and revolution in Philippines -came to control the trade between Manila and the interiors and to acquire land -Chinese men married indigenous women and over time the multi-cultural Chinese mestizo group developed -granted the legal status of colonial subjects of Spain and baptized converts to the Catholic Church with certain rights and privileges denied the Chinese immigrants -came to play a vital role in the economic development of the country and also in inspiring the Philippine revolution -came to acquire many native lands through a legal instrument called pacto de retro or contract of retrocession -when there were problems with production on old friars and native elite estates, it was more commercially advantageous to break down large encomiendas into smaller properties which Chinese mestizos purchased -Chinese mestizo elites joined remaining indigenous elites
US influence over Philippines
context: Rodriguez Reading, lingering effects of US rule -US government set up arrangements that would ensure that it would have strong influence in the country -1) US government pushed to have certain Filipinos in power, often those educated in the US and beholden to US interests -2) the US set up agreements that would ensure that the Philippine economy would remain highly dependent on US markets -the US has since maintained influence by controlling the conditions of IMF and World Bank loans to the Philippines -contemporary trends of labor migration from the Philippines was also laid: -A) solidified political hierarchies with Philippine society: economic elites from the Spanish colonial period took advantage of colonists, bought land and took local gov positions, alliances between Filipinx elites and officials and US colonial officials -B) it also created a precedence and pathways for different forms of labor migration: US metropole looked to its Philippine colony for waged laborers; considered "nationals" and were exempt from immigration restrictions; work on plantations in ag and service sector; emergence of labor contractors
pensionado program
context: Rodriguez Reading: US established program -recruiting the young, mainly sons of elite families for training and education in American Universities -part of how alliances among elites in both countries were developed -after Philippines became independent in 1946, migrants continued to come but from different segments of the population -elite pensiondos returned to the Philippines and idea of "American Dream" spread -US set up an education system in the country modeled on its own including medical education
labor brokerage
context: Rodriguez Reading; the role that the Philippine state has taken on in its relationships with OCWs -a neoliberal strategy that is comprised of institutional and discursive practices through which the Philippine state mobilizes its citizens and sends them abroad to work for employers throughout the world while generating a 'profit' from the remittances that migrants send back to their families and loved ones remaining in the Philippines -Philippine state negotiates with labor-receiving states to formalize outflows of migrant workers and thereby enables employers around the globe to avail themselves of temporary workers who can be summoned to work for finite periods of time and then returned to their homeland at the conclusion of their employment contracts -legacies of labor brokerage began during the U.S. colonial period
