Beyond the ‘Natasha’ story – a review and critique of current research on sex trafficking

A review of literature on sex trafficking since 2000 reveals that numerous articles have been published in scholarly journals but few are based on systematic primary data collection. Much of our current knowledge, including statistical estimates and characteristics of the trafficking business, derives from a handful reports issued by government and non-government agencies. With few empirical studies available, imagination seems to have filled the gaps of our knowledge. The problem was further complicated by a manifest (sometimes subtle) moral crusading agenda aimed at a deep-rooted and hotly debated social practice.

Also noticeable in the literature is an increasing number of authors who have begun to challenge the empirical premises claimed by these published reports. These sceptical authors find that many articles of questionable quality have been published in peer-reviewed journals, and claim that the current discourse on human trafficking is driven by mythology rather than empirical research.

Rather than dwelling on gaps in our knowledge or concerns over the moral overtone in academic research, this paper seeks to raise specific research questions and explore possible field strategies that can advance our knowledge on this topic. Regardless of one's moral compass, the future of research on sex trafficking cannot become credible without a solid empirical foundation.     

Adolescent migrants from Normandy in Paris at the end of the 18th century

The article deals with the social and family environments and modes of departure of migrants from Normandy to Paris at the end of the 18th century. It also considers in-migrants' future once in Paris. This approach to long distance migratory phenomena — applied here specifically to follow a population of adolescents — was possible due to the fruitful linking of serial nominative sources, each created independently. For the departure zone, we have examined three regions in Normandy for which the population was reconstituted over a period covering the end of the 18th century. For Paris, we used the registers of identity cards, or cartes de sûreté, issued between 1793 and 1794. The typical portrait of the adolescent in-migrant consists of an individual who is the youngest member of a fairly large family. He was often born in a small town, not in a village. It is likely that his decision to migrate was not impeded by his father's refusal. Indeed, the father of the in-migrant was often dead when the son left. In-migrations tended to be isolated; the adolescent rarely joined a family member in the capital. Migration to Paris often seemed to lead to a rupture with the childhood region.     

Demographic socialization and reproductive behavior in a transitional context: a macro–micro perspective

This paper analyzes the impact of individuals’ socialization in a given demographic context on their later reproductive behavior in 19th century Geneva. To assess this socialization effect on the fertility of first generation immigrants, I combine family reconstitution data with Coale’s aggregate indexes of marital fertility. I then run two-level Poisson regression models predicting age-specific fertility rates as a function of individual characteristics at the lower level and as a function of province-level fertility at the higher level. The results show a strong socialization effect among couples who were already married when arriving in Geneva, whereas among immigrants who arrived as singles and who got married in Geneva the impact of demographic socialization turns out much weaker.     

Domestic servants and diffusion of fertility control in Flanders, 1830–1930

This article uses a mixed method approach to analyse whether urban domestic service functioned as a diffusion channel in the fertility decline. The central hypothesis is that nineteenth century female, rural-born domestic servants were influenced by the reproductive habits of their middle and upper-class employers, who were vanguards in the adoption of family size limitation within marriage. This happened via a process of social learning, a mechanism of social influence in heterogeneous social networks. Female domestic servants are an excellent research population to study reproductive ideas and behaviour because they were large in number and had a particular social position in between the working and upper classes and in between rural and urban environments. This paper is unique in its use of qualitative information to analyse social fertility diffusion and in the incorporation of geographical mobility in the statistical part.     

Between hearts and pockets: locating the outcomes of transnational homemaking practices among Mexican women in Canada's temporary migration programmes

Temporary migration programmes (TMPs) contain features such as reduced costs and the social legitimation of regularized entry that allow women, including the very poor, to access transnational livelihoods. For mothers, taking up opportunities for employment abroad inevitably involves ‘transnational homemaking’, the set practices involved in caring for family relationships and maintaining household economies across borders. In this article, we examine the transnational homemaking practices undertaken by rural Mexican migrant women employed in highly masculinized TMPs in Canada, tracing how they construct and maintain household economies across borders through a delicate (re)negotiation of reproductive roles and responsibilities with non-migrating kin in Mexico. We find that migration yields material and subjective benefits that enable the expansion of their citizenship across multiple dimensions ranging from the economic to the sexual. At the same time, as racialized, gendered, migrants from the global South, their labour and status in Canada are highly precarious. The advantages derived from transnational migration are thus tenuous, limited, and contradictory.     

After citizenship: autonomy of migration,organisational ontology and mobile commons

This paper explores the relevance of the autonomy of migration approach for understanding the role of citizenship in the sovereign control of mobility. There is an insurgent configuration of ordinary experiences of mobility emerging against this regime of control. At its core is the sharing of knowledge and infrastructures of connectivity, affective cooperation, mutual support and care among people on the move. The sovereign regime of mobility control is displaced on the level on which it attempts to take hold: the everyday movements of migrants. The frenetic fixation with security is challenged by the creation of common worlds of existence; the obsession with governance is replaced by inhabiting social spaces below the radar of existing political structures. This paper attempts to contribute to a reconstruction of this mundane ontology of transmigration, an ontology which we will describe as the mobile commons of migration.     

Building Italianità in Northern Adriatic: the case of organized migration of population from Pola/Pula

The article analyzes the process of building italianità in the case of migration of population from Pola/Pula that started as early as May 1945 and culminated in an organized process that officially began on 23 January 1947 and lasted until 20 March that same year. The article sheds light on the premises of that identity by analyzing complex activities of the Italian authorities who wanted to “defend Italianism” in Pola/Pula, as well as in other border areas of former Venezia Giulia. At the state level, they were mainly carried out by the Office for the Julian March/Ufficio per la Venezia Giulia and following reorganization beginning at the end of 1946 by the Office for Border Areas/Ufficio per le Zone di Confine, and at the local level by a network of pro-Italian organizations and groups. Analysis contributes to the understanding of the top-down and bottom-up italianità building process. On the local level, common identity was built upon the myth of the patria, reiteration of traumatic/“wounded” memories and victim presentation of the “Italian” population, fear to be separated from the patria, and unjust peace treaty propaganda. Simultaneously, the “Italian” population understood the Italian state as their defender.     

Exploring “North” and “South” in post-Soviet Bishkek: discourses and perceptions of rural-urban migration

In this paper we explore, through the narratives and perspectives of “old residents” in post-Soviet Bishkek, the dominant discourse which has emerged towards rural migrants arriving to the city from other areas of Kyrgyzstan from the late Soviet period onwards. We investigate the existence of a primarily “antagonistic” discourse in relation to the migrants and analyze this in detail to understand how it illuminates wider concerns amongst residents about what is occurring in their city, and about wider processes of social change in Kyrgyzstan. The paper provides a revealing insight into the processes of urban change in post-Soviet Central Asia, and demonstrates the ways in which confrontation with the everyday harsh realities of post-Soviet transformation can lead to the negative “othering” of one group of urban residents by another. We also demonstrate how the “old residents'” perceptions of migrants reveal important insights into emerging notions and constructions of identity in the post-Soviet period, related in this case to understandings of “North” and “South'1 The terms “North” and “South” are used here to denote the “North” and “South” of Kyrgyzstan. Talas, Naryn, Issyk-Kul' and Chuy regions (where the regional and national capital Bishkek is located) are usually taken as “North”, whereas Osh, Batken and Dzhalal-Abad regions are taken as “South.” View all notes and related concepts of what is “urban” and what is “Kyrgyz”.     

Durable peace and sustainable development in Africa

Zimbabwean migration into South Africa represents a challenge to standard global models for responding to large-scale migration flows. South Africa's existing legal and institutional infrastructure for migration management and refugee protection is not adequate for responding to this challenge and yet the country has not planned or implemented alternative responses. The paper outlines the complex ‘mixed’ nature of current Zimbabwean migration to South Africa and describes how South Africa's range of legal and institutional responses are ineffective in protecting both South Africa's national interests and the rights of Zimbabwean migrants. After presenting a series of factors against which future responses should be evaluated, it lists various possible forms of response, including legal and humanitarian interventions, and discusses their respective appropriateness in the South African context. Finally, the paper suggests six possible policy scenarios, taking into account institutional and political realities on the ground in South Africa.