This Editorial introduces a Special Issue of Anti-Trafficking Review on COVID-19 and its impacts on labour, migration, and human trafficking. It outlines some of the main challenges that internal and cross-border migrants faced during the pandemic, including closures of workplaces, deportations, lack of access to healthcare and social support, increasing xenophobia and racism, and more. It then presents a summary of the articles contained in the Special Issue and concludes with some broad reflections on the lessons (not) learnt from the pandemic.
{"title":"Editorial: Labour, Migration, and Exploitation during COVID-19 and Lessons (Not) Learnt","authors":"A. Lepp, Borislav Gerasimov","doi":"10.14197/atr.201223211","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201223211","url":null,"abstract":"This Editorial introduces a Special Issue of Anti-Trafficking Review on COVID-19 and its impacts on labour, migration, and human trafficking. It outlines some of the main challenges that internal and cross-border migrants faced during the pandemic, including closures of workplaces, deportations, lack of access to healthcare and social support, increasing xenophobia and racism, and more. It then presents a summary of the articles contained in the Special Issue and concludes with some broad reflections on the lessons (not) learnt from the pandemic.","PeriodicalId":43972,"journal":{"name":"Anti-Trafficking Review","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139334295","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Australian government has long treated migrant labour as a commodity, a ‘tap’ to be turned on and off in accordance with government or employer perceptions of the labour market. This article examines the Australian government’s policies concerning migrant workers during COVID-19, against the backdrop of its failure to take any meaningful steps to address systemic migrant exploitation over the past decade. It then considers the devastating human consequences of these policies during the first pandemic lockdowns, based on empirical data from over 6,100 temporary migrants collected in mid-2020. The data demonstrate migrant workers’ inability to pay for essential needs (including food and medical care); their lack of access to secure or emergency housing as well as emergency support in the form of cash or food; and their experiences of racism, discrimination, and social exclusion during the pandemic. We conclude that Australia’s commodified approach to migrant workers and acquiescence to exploitation reflected a deeper disavowal of migrants’ humanity and rights. This lens explains the apparent contradiction in which the government first denied or disregarded its legal and moral responsibilities towards them during the immediate crisis posed by the pandemic, while at the same time courting their labour in the context of skills shortages during and after the pandemic.
{"title":"‘Inanimate Objects’: Human consequences of Australia’s commodified approach to migrant workers during COVID-19","authors":"Laurie Berg, Bassina Farbenblum","doi":"10.14197/atr.201223212","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201223212","url":null,"abstract":"The Australian government has long treated migrant labour as a commodity, a ‘tap’ to be turned on and off in accordance with government or employer perceptions of the labour market. This article examines the Australian government’s policies concerning migrant workers during COVID-19, against the backdrop of its failure to take any meaningful steps to address systemic migrant exploitation over the past decade. It then considers the devastating human consequences of these policies during the first pandemic lockdowns, based on empirical data from over 6,100 temporary migrants collected in mid-2020. The data demonstrate migrant workers’ inability to pay for essential needs (including food and medical care); their lack of access to secure or emergency housing as well as emergency support in the form of cash or food; and their experiences of racism, discrimination, and social exclusion during the pandemic. We conclude that Australia’s commodified approach to migrant workers and acquiescence to exploitation reflected a deeper disavowal of migrants’ humanity and rights. This lens explains the apparent contradiction in which the government first denied or disregarded its legal and moral responsibilities towards them during the immediate crisis posed by the pandemic, while at the same time courting their labour in the context of skills shortages during and after the pandemic.","PeriodicalId":43972,"journal":{"name":"Anti-Trafficking Review","volume":"78 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135243791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Corinne Schwarz, Hannah Britton, Eden Nay, Christie Holland
During the earliest waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, much media and public discourse focused on the effects of increasing precarity on already vulnerable populations. As in-person work added a layer of viral risk and unemployment drastically exacerbated economic precariousness, the category of ‘essential worker’ gained new prominence in these conversations. In this paper, we focus on the complicated relationship between two groups of workers depicted as marginalised and exploited to different degrees during COVID-19: trafficked persons and anti-trafficking service providers. Though media coverage did not conflate these groups, it applied a capacious understanding of precarious labour and structural inequalities that encapsulated different types of essential work. We draw on media produced by frontline anti-trafficking and sex workers’ rights organisations between March and May 2020. Even with renewed attention to macro-level harms, many publications still emphasised individualism over collectivity. This emphasis on singular organisational representatives—frontline workers—as heroic rescuers mirrored larger, normative anti-trafficking discourses. At the point at which the ‘new normal’ was nowhere in sight, COVID-19 served as a flashpoint to reconsider current intervention strategies and instead emphasise a critique of precarious labour along multiple vectors.
{"title":"‘Now More Than Ever, Survivors Need Us’: Essential labouring and increased precarity during COVID-19","authors":"Corinne Schwarz, Hannah Britton, Eden Nay, Christie Holland","doi":"10.14197/atr.201223218","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201223218","url":null,"abstract":"During the earliest waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, much media and public discourse focused on the effects of increasing precarity on already vulnerable populations. As in-person work added a layer of viral risk and unemployment drastically exacerbated economic precariousness, the category of ‘essential worker’ gained new prominence in these conversations. In this paper, we focus on the complicated relationship between two groups of workers depicted as marginalised and exploited to different degrees during COVID-19: trafficked persons and anti-trafficking service providers. Though media coverage did not conflate these groups, it applied a capacious understanding of precarious labour and structural inequalities that encapsulated different types of essential work. We draw on media produced by frontline anti-trafficking and sex workers’ rights organisations between March and May 2020. Even with renewed attention to macro-level harms, many publications still emphasised individualism over collectivity. This emphasis on singular organisational representatives—frontline workers—as heroic rescuers mirrored larger, normative anti-trafficking discourses. At the point at which the ‘new normal’ was nowhere in sight, COVID-19 served as a flashpoint to reconsider current intervention strategies and instead emphasise a critique of precarious labour along multiple vectors.","PeriodicalId":43972,"journal":{"name":"Anti-Trafficking Review","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135199263","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
During the COVID-19 pandemic, experts called attention to the fact that the pandemic was disproportionately affecting socially vulnerable groups. Research suggested that structural inequalities resulted in unequal access to healthcare and that infection prevention measures increased precarious working conditions in illegal, informal, or unregulated sectors, such as the sex industry. This article reports on research findings that examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives and working conditions of 25 women internal migrant sex workers in the city of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. It demonstrates that the pandemic and measures to control it severely impacted the lives of internal migrant sex workers, their affective and work relationships, as well as their income, safety, and physical and mental health. Furthermore, sex workers suffered from disturbing levels of violence and precariousness as well as a lack of effective policies aimed at protecting their health and well-being. This was exacerbated by the stigma, lack of labour rights, and the fact that they were migrants, which impacted them financially and emotionally during movement restrictions.
{"title":"Negotiating Multiple Risks: Health, safety, and well-being among internal migrant sex workers in Brazil during COVID-19","authors":"Angelo Martins Jr, Larissa Brito, Thiago Pizzo Scatena","doi":"10.14197/atr.201223215","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201223215","url":null,"abstract":"During the COVID-19 pandemic, experts called attention to the fact that the pandemic was disproportionately affecting socially vulnerable groups. Research suggested that structural inequalities resulted in unequal access to healthcare and that infection prevention measures increased precarious working conditions in illegal, informal, or unregulated sectors, such as the sex industry. This article reports on research findings that examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives and working conditions of 25 women internal migrant sex workers in the city of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. It demonstrates that the pandemic and measures to control it severely impacted the lives of internal migrant sex workers, their affective and work relationships, as well as their income, safety, and physical and mental health. Furthermore, sex workers suffered from disturbing levels of violence and precariousness as well as a lack of effective policies aimed at protecting their health and well-being. This was exacerbated by the stigma, lack of labour rights, and the fact that they were migrants, which impacted them financially and emotionally during movement restrictions.","PeriodicalId":43972,"journal":{"name":"Anti-Trafficking Review","volume":"64 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135199405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The COVID-19 pandemic affected various aspects of social and economic life across the world, with women and minorities especially bearing the brunt of its negative consequences. For Kyrgyz migrant women in Russia, this was further compounded by particularities of the low-wage or informal sectors where they worked. This article contributes to the scholarship on the impact of COVID-19 on migrant workers in destination countries. Drawing on data from 298 Kyrgyz women working in Russia, it explores women’s experiences with income, labour protections, freedom of movement, and violence in the workplace during the pandemic. It demonstrates that these experiences are caused by the intersection of gender and migration status. The article concludes with recommendations directed at the Kyrgyz government and civil society to improve the situation of Kyrgyz migrant women working in Russia.
{"title":"‘The Pandemic Played a Cruel Joke on Us’: The vulnerabilities of Kyrgyz women migrant workers in Russia during COVID-19","authors":"Lola Abdukadyrova, Olga Studenko","doi":"10.14197/atr.201223213","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201223213","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic affected various aspects of social and economic life across the world, with women and minorities especially bearing the brunt of its negative consequences. For Kyrgyz migrant women in Russia, this was further compounded by particularities of the low-wage or informal sectors where they worked. This article contributes to the scholarship on the impact of COVID-19 on migrant workers in destination countries. Drawing on data from 298 Kyrgyz women working in Russia, it explores women’s experiences with income, labour protections, freedom of movement, and violence in the workplace during the pandemic. It demonstrates that these experiences are caused by the intersection of gender and migration status. The article concludes with recommendations directed at the Kyrgyz government and civil society to improve the situation of Kyrgyz migrant women working in Russia.","PeriodicalId":43972,"journal":{"name":"Anti-Trafficking Review","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135243643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this paper, I examine the challenges faced by sex workers in the New Kuchingoro camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous studies on sex workers’ activities in the camp have underscored their hardships, distress, and deprivation, as well as their general inability to cope with COVID-19. Through my research, I reveal that the government and other agencies failed to support sex workers’ struggle to adequately provide for themselves and their families. I also explore the different strategies they employed in their efforts to survive during this period of hardship, which demonstrated their resilience.
{"title":"Are They Victims of COVID-19? The livelihood and quandaries of sex workers in the New Kuchingoro camp for internally displaced people in Abuja, Nigeria","authors":"Seun Bamidele","doi":"10.14197/atr.201223216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201223216","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, I examine the challenges faced by sex workers in the New Kuchingoro camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous studies on sex workers’ activities in the camp have underscored their hardships, distress, and deprivation, as well as their general inability to cope with COVID-19. Through my research, I reveal that the government and other agencies failed to support sex workers’ struggle to adequately provide for themselves and their families. I also explore the different strategies they employed in their efforts to survive during this period of hardship, which demonstrated their resilience.","PeriodicalId":43972,"journal":{"name":"Anti-Trafficking Review","volume":"556 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135200484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This short article provides an overview of the US government’s response to COVID-19 and the exclusion of sex workers from pandemic relief. It details the impacts of this exclusion, including how sex workers and advocates were forced to prioritise emergency service provision over longer-term policy goals. The article concludes that the exclusion of sex workers from COVID-19 relief is part of the US government’s broader history of discriminating against people involved in the sex trades and hindering advancements in policies to protect sex workers’ human rights.
{"title":"Access Denied: Sex workers’ exclusion from COVID-19 relief in the United States","authors":"Mariah Grant","doi":"10.14197/atr.2012232110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.2012232110","url":null,"abstract":"This short article provides an overview of the US government’s response to COVID-19 and the exclusion of sex workers from pandemic relief. It details the impacts of this exclusion, including how sex workers and advocates were forced to prioritise emergency service provision over longer-term policy goals. The article concludes that the exclusion of sex workers from COVID-19 relief is part of the US government’s broader history of discriminating against people involved in the sex trades and hindering advancements in policies to protect sex workers’ human rights.","PeriodicalId":43972,"journal":{"name":"Anti-Trafficking Review","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135243640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
While human trafficking in its different forms has received growing recognition, currently there is an absence of research providing empirical evidence on the potential impact of COVID-19. COVID-19 and its related challenges provide a lens through which the vulnerability and complexities inherent in human trafficking can be further ascertained and analysed. This article explores challenges encountered by key stakeholders primarily operating in the field of countering human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation across Europe. These challenges are categorised as increased vulnerability to human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation; the impact on services and support; and limitations on professional duties. A qualitative method involving sixty-five semi-structured interviews was employed to capture the on-the-ground experiences of a diverse cohort of stakeholders active during the pandemic.
{"title":"Key Stakeholder Perspectives on the Potential Impact of COVID-19 on Human Trafficking for the Purpose of Labour Exploitation","authors":"Muiread Murphy","doi":"10.14197/atr.201223217","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201223217","url":null,"abstract":"While human trafficking in its different forms has received growing recognition, currently there is an absence of research providing empirical evidence on the potential impact of COVID-19. COVID-19 and its related challenges provide a lens through which the vulnerability and complexities inherent in human trafficking can be further ascertained and analysed. This article explores challenges encountered by key stakeholders primarily operating in the field of countering human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation across Europe. These challenges are categorised as increased vulnerability to human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation; the impact on services and support; and limitations on professional duties. A qualitative method involving sixty-five semi-structured interviews was employed to capture the on-the-ground experiences of a diverse cohort of stakeholders active during the pandemic.","PeriodicalId":43972,"journal":{"name":"Anti-Trafficking Review","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135199424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article presents a case study of how COVID-19 has increased the precarity and risks of labour exploitation for vulnerable populations. Looking at the situation of LGBTQ+ Venezuelan asylum seekers in Brazil during COVID-19, it examines how the challenges they faced were exacerbated during the pandemic and how the Brazilian government’s poor response to COVID-19 and lockdown policies forced LGBTQ+ Venezuelan asylum seekers to take greater risks that exposed them to the virus. Based on 56 surveys with LGBTQ+ Venezuelan asylum seekers in Manaus, Brazil, the article discusses how COVID-19 impacted the livelihoods of LGBTQ+ Venezuelan asylum seekers. Specifically, it demonstrates that transgender and travesti Venezuelan asylum seekers experienced more labour precarity, discrimination, and violence during the pandemic than their cisgender counterparts.
{"title":"No One Wants to Hire Us: The intersectional precarity experienced by Venezuelan LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in Brazil during COVID-19","authors":"Yvonne Su","doi":"10.14197/atr.201223214","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201223214","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents a case study of how COVID-19 has increased the precarity and risks of labour exploitation for vulnerable populations. Looking at the situation of LGBTQ+ Venezuelan asylum seekers in Brazil during COVID-19, it examines how the challenges they faced were exacerbated during the pandemic and how the Brazilian government’s poor response to COVID-19 and lockdown policies forced LGBTQ+ Venezuelan asylum seekers to take greater risks that exposed them to the virus. Based on 56 surveys with LGBTQ+ Venezuelan asylum seekers in Manaus, Brazil, the article discusses how COVID-19 impacted the livelihoods of LGBTQ+ Venezuelan asylum seekers. Specifically, it demonstrates that transgender and travesti Venezuelan asylum seekers experienced more labour precarity, discrimination, and violence during the pandemic than their cisgender counterparts.","PeriodicalId":43972,"journal":{"name":"Anti-Trafficking Review","volume":"94 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135243633","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This short article discusses the challenges faced by women engaging in prostitution/sex work or in situations of trafficking for sexual exploitation during the COVID-19 pandemic. These included housing and food insecurity, violence, failure by the police to identify them as trafficked persons, lack of social assistance, and the inability to renew residence and work permits. The article also presents the support provided to women by the NGO Hermanas Oblatas in Spain, Portugal, and Italy.
{"title":"Providing Services to Women in Situations of Prostitution and Human Trafficking during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Spain, Italy, and Portugal","authors":"Olaya García-Vázquez, Carmen Meneses-Falcón","doi":"10.14197/atr.201223219","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201223219","url":null,"abstract":"This short article discusses the challenges faced by women engaging in prostitution/sex work or in situations of trafficking for sexual exploitation during the COVID-19 pandemic. These included housing and food insecurity, violence, failure by the police to identify them as trafficked persons, lack of social assistance, and the inability to renew residence and work permits. The article also presents the support provided to women by the NGO Hermanas Oblatas in Spain, Portugal, and Italy.","PeriodicalId":43972,"journal":{"name":"Anti-Trafficking Review","volume":"95 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135199117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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