Event — Lecture

The Rumour of Trafficking - Migration Policy in the face of Moral Panic and Migrant Agency

11/12/2007 - 20:00

 

Issues in Malay Postcolonial Literature: Before and After Independence

11 December 2007
20.00 hrs

Lecture by Dr Diana Wong. Fellow, Social Science Research Council, New York

The phrase "rumor of trafficking" is of course meant to be provocative. What I shall argue is that a "hyper-discourse" on trafficking started to emerge in the early 1990s in Europe - traceable in fact to an IOM conference held shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. This discourse drew on migration "research" as well as media "journalism", and had a profound impact on migration policy - both at the national and international levels. I shall draw the parallel to a similar instance of a hyper-discourse on migration at the beginning of the 20th century - the White Slave Trade, which was also about the trafficking of women, and also had a profound impact on UK and US policy. With hindsight, serious research has shown that there was very little substance to the charges of white slave trafficking then, and that it was largely symptomatic of a "moral panic" associated with the extraordinarily high levels of migration obtaining then. I shall argue that the same applies today. The contemporary hyper discourse on trafficking misreads migration realities by overlooking migrant agency. That is the act of omission. As, if not more, disturbing is that it criminalizes the act of migration. Migration policy based on these two errors - of omission and commission - cannot be good or effective policy. Both society - receiving and sending, as well as migrants, pay a heavy price.

The format for this evening will be a short (10-15 minute) presentation by the main speaker to introduce the theme. This is followed by a panel discussion in which the main speaker and one or two other guests debate the theme in more depth. This discussion, and the question and answer session with the audience, is led by a moderator from RNW and recorded for broadcast in the Amsterdam Forum series.

Lezingen en discussies over Mensen en grenzen

In de laatste decennia hebben globalisering en transnationalisme geleid tot wereldwijde bewegingen van kapitaal, goederen en mensen. Deze lezingenserie besteedt aandacht aan de verplaatsingen van mensen binnen en over internationale grenzen in Europa en Azië.


Locatie
De Rode Hoed
Keizersgracht 102
1015 CV Amsterdam
Tel.: 020 - 638 56 06
Toegangsprijs: €8,-/ €7,-
Passe-partout
zes lezingen €35,00
Reserveren is wenselijk

Informatie: www.rodehoed.nl

Research website: http://www.iias.nl/ibl

19 februari 2008: `Interne grenzen bij Hindoestaanse jongeren`, door Ellen Bal (Nederland)
12 maart: `Transnational crime`, by Itty Abraham (VS)
22 april: `Labour migration`, by Malini Sur (India)