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THE ANTI-POLITICS OF ANTI-TRAFFICKING: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ANTI-TRAFFICKING POLICY AND PRACTICE IN BENIN AND ITALY

Final Report Summary - AP-AT (THE ANTI-POLITICS OF ANTI-TRAFFICKING: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ANTI-TRAFFICKING POLICY AND PRACTICE IN BENIN AND ITALY)

AP-AT has been a great success on a number of levels. The project set out to undertake a comparative analysis of anti-trafficking policy in Benin and Italy, as a lens through which to examine anti-trafficking policy more broadly. It built on a doctorate examining the trafficking regime in Benin, and over the course of this Fellowship expanded that research to comparatively examine the regimes in Italy and Europe more widely. Field research was conducted at European level, with European anti-traffickers, at Italian national level, and at ground level, with a case study population of apparently trafficked workers defined as victims of severe exploitation and/or forced labour. My research involved many months of interviews and field observation, with political actors and the targets of their interventions. It saw me analyse political documentation and public declarations. And it was also buttressed by consistent engagement with fellow scholars working on similar issues.

What I found was what I hypothesised: anti-trafficking policy (which, it appears, is ever more closely related to anti-forced labour and anti-modern slavery policy) is profoundly depoliticising. It fails to conceive of the dangers to human freedom posed by the organisation of the market economy and the bordering of society. The issues 'discussable' by anti-trafficking actors are determined by political power and the exigencies (and pressures) of funding. As well as by problematic and unquestioned assumptions about the empirical experience of labour and mobility based on minimal engagement with exploited migrant workers. This prevents policy from effectively protecting people.

I believe that the impact of this research can be (and indeed, as the next section will show, has been) significant. I have translated it up to policy makers at European and global levels. I have written consistently for public audiences and sought to provide guidance to international organisations (with whom I have also entered into partnership). My work informed the team drafting the Forced Labour Protocol and that of civil society advocating around labour trafficking at the European level. It will be of interest to scholars, civil society, and political leaders, with my hope that it will lead at least the first two of these three to re-think the support they give to the latter.

To this end, I undertook the following trainings during the MCF:

2015 Strategic Advocacy (Bond UK)
2014 Project Management (Hemsley Fraser)
2013 Diplomatic Communication (Dale Carnegie)
2013 Leadership, Persuasion and Influence (Reed Learning)

I also undertook public speaking training at the EUI.