Everyday Spaces of Human Trafficking: (In)visibility and Agency Among Trafficked Women in U.S. Military-Oriented Clubs in South Korea

Abstract

Spaces of human trafficking can be perceived as “total,” akin to those of the prison and the detention center, because of the intense surveillance, bodily compliance through discipline, removal of freedom, and restricted mobility they create. Although Foucault's panopticon and Goffman's related concept of the total institution have some merit in conceptualizing these situations, geographical scholarship on institutions and regimes of incarceration has advanced important critiques of prisons as total institutions, arguing among other things for the potential of incarcerated subjects to resist and express agency. Drawing on de Certeau, these arguments focus on agency that is expressed through manipulating and subverting the disciplining gaze of power in highly embodied ways. This article examines these everyday expressions of agency in the context of bars and clubs located around U.S. military bases in South Korea, where many of the female migrant laborers are trafficked entertainers. Despite the growing scholarly engagement with human trafficking, comparatively little research attends to everyday resistance and agency in such situations or what spaces of human trafficking might tell us about the nature and geography of incarceration. In response, this article advances a perspective that centers on shadow play in everyday spaces of incarceration to illuminate the operations of resistance and agency in situations of human trafficking. It also draws attention to some of the limits in understanding resistance in such situations through the models and practices of labor activism derived through a consideration of ostensibly free laborers.

人口贩运空间, 因其所创造的高度监控、透过规训使身体顺从、剥夺自由, 以及有限的能动性, 因此可视为 “全面性的”, 并近似于监狱与拘留中心。儘管傅柯的全景监狱和高弗曼相关的完全机构之概念, 对于概念化这些境况有部分帮助, 但有关监禁制度与体制的地理学研究, 已推进对于将监狱视为完全机构的重要批判, 主张被监控的主体反抗并表达行动主体的潜能及其他事物。这些主张引用德塞图 (de Certeau), 聚焦以高度身体化的方式, 透过操控和颠覆权力规训凝视所表达的行动主体。本文检视在南韩美军基地附近的酒吧与俱乐部中, 上述行动主体的每日生活表达, 其中许多女性移工是受到人口贩运的娱乐表演者。尽管有越来越多的学术研究涉入人口贩运, 但相对而言, 则较少有研究关注在此般境况中的每日生活抵抗和行动主体, 或是人口贩运的什麽空间能告诉我们监禁的地理及本质。本文推进聚焦监禁的每日生活空间中的皮影戏之视角作为回应, 从而阐述在人口贩运的境况下, 抵抗与行动主体的运作。本文同时关注透过考量表面上自由的劳动者衍生出的劳工行动主义之模型与实践, 在理解此般情境中的反抗的若干限制。

Los espacios del tráfico de humanos pueden percibirse como “totales,” similares a los de la prisión y el centro de detención, en razón de la vigilancia estricta, docilidad corporal por medio de la disciplina, supresión de la libertad y movilidad restringida, que aquellos crean. Aunque el panóptico de Foucault y el concepto relacionado de la institución total de Goffman sean acreedores de algún mérito para conceptualizar estas situaciones, la erudición geográfica sobre instituciones y regímenes carcelarios ha contribuido críticas importantes a las prisiones como instituciones totales, arguyendo entre otras cosas sobre el potencial de los sujetos presos de resistir y expresar agencia. Con base en de Certeau, estos argumentos se centran en la agencia que se expresa manipulando y subvirtiendo el control disciplinario del poder de maneras altamente personificadas. Este artículo examina estas expresiones cotidianas de agencia dentro del contexto de bares y clubes localizados en los alrededores de las bases militares americanas en Corea del Sur, donde muchas de las trabajadoras migrantes son entretenedoras traficadas. Pese a la creciente preocupación académica con el tráfico de humanos, es comparativamente poca la investigación que se dedica a la resistencia cotidiana y agencia en tales situaciones o a determinar qué espacios del tráfico de humanos podrían contarnos acerca de la naturaleza y geografía del encarcelamiento. Como respuesta, este artículo promueve una perspectiva que se centra en un teatro de sombras de los espacios cotidianos de encarcelamiento para iluminar las operaciones de resistencia y agencia en situaciones de tráfico de humanos. También se llama la atención hacia algunos de los límites para entender la resistencia en tales situaciones por medio de los modelos y prácticas del activismo laboral derivados a través de una consideración de trabajadores ostensiblemente libres.

Key Words:

• carceral space
• human trafficking
• resistance
• shadow play
• South Korea

关键词：:

• 监狱空间, 人口贩运, 抵抗, 皮影戏, 南韩。

Palabras clave:

• espacio carcelario
• tráfico de humanos
• resistencia
• teatro de sombras
• Corea del Sur

Acknowledgments

This article has benefited from comments from the Social and Cultural Geographies Research Group at the National University of Singapore. I am particularly grateful to Kamalini Ramdas for her insights concerning Foucault. Thanks also to the helpful suggestions of three anonymous reviewers and Richard Wright for his excellent editorial work on the article. Normal disclaimers apply.

Notes

1 Other critiques engage with a range of important contemporary processes and structures that create and maintain carceral institutions associated with state and interstate power, particularly the rise of a global military-industrial complex (Wacquant 2005a, 2005b; Sexton and Lee 2006; Martin and Mitchelson 2009; Loyd, Mitchelson, and Burridge 2012). These critiques, in contrast to the focus of this article, tend to proceed at a macroscale.

2 A bar fine is where a customer pays the club to take a woman out for a set period of time (usually a few hours or overnight). Only some of the clubs have bar fines. The points system refers to the accumulation of a points tally by individual entertainers for having a “ladies drink” bought for them by a customer. A ladies drink enables a customer to have a woman sit with him at a table for a set period of time, normally twenty minutes. In both bar fines and ladies drinks, the entertainer is supposed to receive a commission, which is a percentage of the total price, and is often no more than 10 percent. This is often the only income women have in the absence of receiving a regular salary.

3 I use the terms mama-san and ajumma interchangeably, following their use by my participants. Mama-san is a Japanese term used in bars to refer to female overseers and bosses and has been appropriated for use in Korea's U.S. military-oriented bars. Ajumma is a Korean term with the literal meaning of aunty and also refers to the same group of women in the club hierarchy as mama-san.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sallie Yea

SALLIE YEA lectures in the Centre for Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include vulnerable migration, human trafficking, and labor mobility in Asia. She explores these subjects through critical and feminist perspectives and with a focus on transnationalism and identity.