Social service responses to human trafficking: the making of a public health problem

Abstract

Human trafficking has received considerable attention from policymakers, researchers and service providers globally, with resulting interventions often positioning trafficking as something that simply exists. Drawing on Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ approach, this article proposes that trafficking is continually made through efforts designed to eradicate it. We conducted 22 interviews with representatives from social service organisations funded by the government of Ontario, Canada, for anti-trafficking programming. These interviews provide insight into how trafficking is being represented and with what effects. Our findings suggest that organisational initiatives often rely on individualised health-related interventions, such as trauma-informed counselling and other mental health support, to address trafficking. In the process, various sex work activities are deemed ‘symptoms’ of trafficking, and perceived pathways to engaging in sex work (such as drug use/dependence, a history of trauma and low self-esteem) are produced as ‘causes’ or ‘risk factors’. We contend that by pathologising sex work and sex workers, organisations are employing a contradictory neoliberal paternalism to advance a public health representation of human trafficking that simultaneously responsibilises and disenfranchises purported victims.

Keywords:

• Human trafficking
• sex work
• social services
• public health
• neoliberal paternalism
• WPR approach
• Canada

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The distinction between sex trafficking and labour trafficking is made based on Article 3(a) of the 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant numbers 430-2017-00898 and 435-2019-0572].