Friends, Fellows, Brothers or Chiefs? Blurred Lines Between Traffickers and Brokers

• In Event: Roundtable: On the Concept of Exploitation: Manipulating Migrant Identities in the Trafficking Discourse

Abstract

Accusations of myriad misdeeds committed by middlemen such as labour brokers, recruiters of sex workers or parents ‘forcing’ children to beg are daily subjects of newspapers discussing the issues of exploitation. There is, however, another side to the activities of brokers. They might create new socio-economic opportunities for (marginalized) populations or maintain processes by which participation in the exchange economy replaces subsistence production. Although they might be solely motivated for their own benefit, middlemen can also provide essential support. As a result of media images of labour exploitation, there is a growing debate on the role of intermediates and how their personal relationships, gender, ethnicity or age define their position in terms of assistance or abuse. In short, we observe two tendencies in references to middlemen: they have either consensual or predatory relationships with their ‘victims’. In this conceptual discussion on exploitation, this contribution will zoom into this dichotomy. The central question will be: how are these contacts contextually constructed in the European discourse on exploitation and in which type of cases do brokers become more alleged transgressors?

Author

• Veronika Nagy, Utrecht University