Productive Ignorance: Assessing Public Understanding of Human Trafficking in Ukraine, Hungary and Great Britain

Trafficking in Human Beings: Made and Cut to Measure? Anti-trafficking Docufictions and the Production of Anti-trafficking Truths

“…Another poorly researched development is the recent increase in the number of anti-trafficking apps, usually developed by consortia of faith-based organisations, tech giants, and government surveillance agencies intending but failing to amass and use 'big data analytics to predict and prevent the growth of international trafficking chains' (Stop the Traffik, 2016). iv Sharapov's (2016) analysis of public understanding of human trafficking in three European countries identifies that video-productions and the Internet are key sources informing public understanding of human trafficking seen, by the majority, as an issue of criminality and 'illegal' migration that does not affect their everyday lives. The representation of suffering Others is an important aspect of the docufictions we analyse, so it will be helpful to engage with the literature on this.…”

“…Sharapov’s (2016) analysis of public understanding of human trafficking in three European countries shows that video-productions and the internet are key sources informing public understanding of human trafficking seen, by the majority, as an issue of criminality and ‘illegal’ migration that does not affect their everyday lives. The representation of suffering Others is an important aspect of the docufictions we analyse, so it will be helpful to engage with the literature on this.…”

‘Traffickers and Their Victims’: Anti-Trafficking Policy in the United Kingdom

“…One of the underlying policy assumptions is that labour provided by victims of trafficking is devoid of any economic or social value other than the value derived by traffickers in the shape of ‘high profits’. This assumption becomes a key element in understanding how government policies effectively disconnect human trafficking from the ‘law-breaking of the powerful’ (Bacchi, 2009: 108): corporations reliant on subordinated migrant workers to meet the demand for low-cost production and service provision (Cohen, 2006); western governments and their biopolitics of migration (FitzGerald, 2012), which maintain migrant workers in a state of vulnerability and ‘exception’ – available as a pool of cheap labour but excluded from belonging to the nation and the benefits of citizenship that come with it (Walia, 2010); and the growing number of consumers wanting to consume ‘more for less’ (Sharapov, 2016) with ‘entire populations, ethnicities, tribal areas, and regions … toiling away to produce the conditions of the good life in Europe and the United States’ (Povinelli, 2012: 173).…”

“…Along with other smaller – in terms of funding – anti-trafficking projects run by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office to address potential victims’ ‘vulnerability’ (Sharapov, 2014), such short-lived initiatives fall within a narrow project-based approach to migration and development focused on economic rather than human development (Keijzer et al, 2015) and should not be confused with ‘cooperative working’ with law enforcement authorities of transit and source countries, highlighted by the UK government as one of its key priorities of reducing trafficking as a crime of illegal border-crossing. Within this context of the government’s and the public’s unwillingness to acknowledge any links between ‘living well for less’ here and poverty, suffering and insecurity ‘out there’ (see Sharapov, 2016), a clear dualism of ‘us’ (our prosperity, good life and security) and ‘them’ (and ‘their poverty’) achieves a status of ‘hyperseparation’ (Rose, 2011: 12) – a process of stretching dualisms so that the two poles have nothing in common. ‘Our’ wealth and good life have nothing in common with ‘their’ poverty, which needs to be stopped before it crosses ‘our’ borders and reaches all that is ‘Great’ about Britain – including, according to the latest government campaign, its ‘dynamic economy and business-friendly environment’, 11 assessed as one of the most de-regulated labour markets among the OECD countries.…”

Human Trafficking and Online Networks: Policy, Analysis, and Ignorance

“…This might also be conceptualised in terms of the construction of selective ignorance, biopolitical management and dissemination of risk and responsibility (Nadesan ), or socially organised denial (Norgaard ). The broader processes in which ignorance and denial on a collective level occur in response to social circumstances and remain related to political economy are further discussed in Sharapov ().…”