Teenage Labor Migration and Antitrafficking Policy in West Africa

Abstract

Within the antitrafficking community, even legal child or youth work is often pathologized, seen as a “worst form of child labor” or, where movement is involved, as trafficking. Major policy responses thus focus on attempting to protect the young by preventing their movement or policing their work. Using a case study of adolescent labor migrants in Benin who work in artisanal gravel quarries in Nigeria, I provide evidence that suggests that the dominant discourse regarding this kind of labor is inaccurate and that policies based on it may be failing. This is in large part because the labor migration depicted as “trafficking” by the antitrafficking community is not experienced as such by young migrants.

Human Trafficking and Contemporary Slavery

“…Even those who are engaged in hazardous activities may not selfidentify as victims. Ethnographic research in villages that send male minors to work in mines in Nigeria uncovered considerable intentionality on the part of the youths (Howard 2014). Their migration experiences and physically arduous and risky work would fit the ILO's definition of "the worst forms of child labor" (long hours, handling of heavy loads, working in hot temperatures, use of mercury to amalgamate gold, working in underground mine shafts).…”

Exploring the “Age Question” in Research on Young Migrants in Southeast Asia

“…Much of this literature is based on research conducted in Africa (Hashim and Thorsen, 2011;Howard, 2014) and Latin America (Bastia, 2005;Punch, 2007). Initially there was only relatively little work coming out of Southeast Asia.…”

In Their Own Words: Children and the Facilitation of Migrant Journeys on the U.S.-Mexico Border

“…Yet this research has often faced criticism for the way it provides no room for children to articulate their own perspectives or to explain the complexities of their experiences beyond those that narrowly describe them as victims or offenders. Critical scholars have raised concerns over the ways children are portrayed as exploited, poor and desperate victims (Howard, 2014;Okyere, 2018), offspring to greedy, ignorant and backward parents (Heidbrink & Statz, 2017;Howard, 2012) but also as predators in the making, leaving the criminalization of their communities and their families unexamined. In the case of Juarez, the distorted and simplistic narrative of the child smuggler has also been reproduced by local authorities and academics, and has even been used to justify the surveillance and criminalization of local youth.…”