Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
sion statement is the focus on women (and the repetition of the phrase
women and chil-
dren
,whichasotherscholarshavenotedhasenteredthegloballexiconaswomenanchil-
drentothepointwherewomenareseen
as
children),thedesiretomobilizeinternational
efforts, and the focus on sexual exploitation.
There is a dramatic disconnect between policies on human trafficking, and the realit-
ies of lived experience. As a result, “antitrafficking” initiatives (most often originating
inEuroAmerica)arehavingadetrimentaleffectonthelivesofmigrantmenandwomen
inDubaiandAbuDhabi,andarecontributingtoadiscourseaboutthoseinneedof“res-
cue” and those who fall outside the “rights” paradigm. Only those whose narratives fit
the“script”oftraffickingdeserveoutreach,andoftenthisoutreachor“rescue”comesin
the form of raids, arrests, and unwanted deportation.
In her description of the global moral panic about human trafficking and sex work
which fuels the production of a rescue industry, Laura Agustín identifies a category of
“thesocial”asthosewhose“jobs,whetherpaidorvoluntary,arededicatedtoimproving
the condition of society in a wide range of ways” (Agustín 2008, 4). She is critical of
this category, however, arguing that “those declaring themselves to be helpers actively
reproduce the marginalization they condemn” (Agustín 2007, 5) and in this way notes
ways in which “the social” functions to harm those they purport to protect, while sim-
ultaneously fueling a racialized, gendered, and moralized discourse. In her book,
Sex at
the Margins
(2007)
,
she chronicles a history of gendered and classed relations wherein
the figure of the “prostitute” was constructed as demonized in the eighteenth and nine-
teenth century in a deliberate attempt to create victims that needed “charity.” Women of
upper and upper middle classes then were able to create jobs and a “charity” industry to
“save” the fallen women and the destitute, and this marked the beginning of the “rescue
industry”whichoperatesonamuchmorecommercializedandcommodifiedleveltoday.
Agustínnotesthatthe“helpers”relyonaparticularconstructionof“thevictim”inorder
to legitimate their authority and work. As she notes, “the victim identity imposed on so
manyinthenameofhelpingthemmakeshelpersthemselvesdisturbinglyimportantfig-
ures” (Agustín 2007, 8). Nowhere is this more evident than in the construction of the
trafficked person who is both portrayed as needing help or rescue and protection, while
also needing to be controlled as a threat to morality and sovereignty. Agustín traces a
genealogy of the rescue industry to follow Judith Butler's concept of genealogy as an
investigation of “the political stakes in designating as an origin and cause those identity
categoriesthatareinfacttheeffectofinstitutions,practicesanddiscourseswithmultiple
and diffuse points of origin” (Butler 1990, ix). In constructing and tracing this gene-
alogy, Agustín shows how those involved in charity work, outreach, and development
specifically vis-à-vis sex work and migrants were actually active producers of identity
categories of victims and thereby produced tropes of fallen women as victims and ra-
