Trafficking in US Agriculture

Abstract

Based on a qualitative methodology that includes in‐depth interviews with 90 Mexican migrant smugglers and 45 Central American farmworkers, this article analyzes the three separate elements of trafficking in US agriculture, namely acts, means, and purposes. We conclude that some US employers participate in human trafficking by financing or helping to recruit and transport Mexican and Central American migrants to the US by means of “abuse of a position of vulnerability” for the purposes of involuntary servitude, debt bondage, and sex exploitation.

Adoption and transferability of joint interventions to fight modern slavery in food supply chains

“…In our study we investigated the FFP, a successful worker-driven approach (Reinecke and Donaghey, 2021) which operates in the agricultural sector in Florida, where labour exploitation was normalised, and cases of modern slavery well documented (Rosile et al, 2021). The question of how to replicate effective multi-stakeholder action toward modern slavery conceived as "societal grand challenge" (George et al, 2016) gains its importance by the fact that exploitation in labour-intensive agricultural operations is widely observed in many countries including affluent countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom (Izcara Palacios and Yamamoto, 2017;Phillips and Trautrims, 2021).…”

“…For example, Sozinho et al (2018) have exposed the historical association of the Brazilian sugarcane industry with human rights abuses. Although affluent countries are generally less concerned with severe forms of labour exploitation, regions with high number of refugees or trafficked people, as for example in Greece, Southern Spain, the United Kingdom and the South of the United State (Izcara Palacios and Yamamoto, 2017;Chesney et al, 2019;Kougkoulos et al, 2021;Phillips and Trautrims, 2021) may face major problems. For example, Chesney et al (2019) explore for the area of Campo de Dalías in Almería (Spain) how the conditions of labour demand and supply through immigration inflows influence management practices of labour exploitation.…”

Terrorism and Developing Countries

“…When family members learn that one of their own is being radicalized and moving toward VE, they do not always intervene, at least publicly, for fear of victimization by security agencies and ridicule from members of the community. According to the 2005 Prevention of Terrorism Act [23], immediate family members of suspects of terrorism were imposed with restrictions, to a great extent translating them to being "guilty by association" [23]. In such a hostile policy and legal environment, families with individuals engaged in VE live their lives under immense pressure and fear of being victimized.…”

“…The Socioeconomic Impact of the Boko Haram Insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin Region DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89905 entrusting their children whom they are unable to care for to religious teachers. In many cases, this leads to radicalization of the children and the perpetuation of extremism [23]. Scholarly work on reasons why insurgency and terrorism may thrive shows that the socioeconomic environment is a critical predictor.…”

Mexican Migrant Smugglers and Foreign Terrorists

“…However, migration control for the control of terrorism is a widely used instrument in the United States. The threat of terrorism provided a pretext for a rigorous application of entry restrictions and deportations, the enforcement of stricter migration controls being legitimized [23]. As Slack et al have pointed out: "the mission statement for CBP does not mention immigration at all, but rather focuses explicitly on terrorism" [24].…”