(De)Racializing victimhood: Narratives of service workers at the Human Trafficking Intervention Courts

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Abstract

This working paper examines the racial/ethnic logics among the services workers at the Human Trafficking Intervention Courts (the HTICs). It focuses on two specific groups of workers, i.e., public defenders and social workers, who provided legal and social services respectively to Chinese immigrant women in New York City. The two groups of workers deserve our attention for two major reasons. First of all, their work represents the two opposite sides of the issue, commercial sex trade: while the public defenders are helping defendants who allegedly violate prostitution laws, the social workers offer their help to the very same population that are considered potential victims under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Secondly, as a result, their roles as well as collaboration with each other at the courts illustrates the inevitable tensions and the policy ambivalence of how the U.S. society views commercial sex trade today.

This paper interrogates the process of immigrant women of color becoming potential sex trafficking victims in the era of globalization. Based on in-depth interviews and court observations, it compares and contrasts the racial/ethnic logics of the public defenders and social workers at the HTICs. The preliminary analysis shows that in general, the public defenders seem to deracialize the clients they serve by recognizing the shared socio-economic position of Chinese and transgender clients. On the other hand, the social workers’ perspective demonstrates a cultural specificity of Chinese clients or communities. They described a cultural tightness that facilitates the circulation of information but also reinforces the social norms as well as stigma around sex work. Moreover, both of their perspectives are embedded and deeply connected with their work structure, including their professions and the HTIC procedure. Discussions on what these different racial/ethnic logics mean in the era of anti-trafficking are also included.

Author

• Yen-Chiao Liao, Siena College