The main aim of this thesis is to encourage policymakers and other key players in the international scene to account for the meaning of victims of trafficking’s lived experiences rather than try to make those experiences meaningful within the dominant colonial narratives or Western ways of understanding. This will open up more facets of understanding and ways of viewing the world which will ultimately influence the findings and the solutions proffered. Liisa Malkki puts it succinctly in her analysis of ethnographic research in her work Improvising Theory -- “most of us see only what we expect to see, and what we expect to see is what we are conditioned to see when we have learned the definitions and classifications of our culture…”. In other words, we need to learn to look beyond the popular ways of understanding particular to our culture, especially in the analysis of people of other cultures. This thesis will establish the importance of this approach in several ways. First, it will explore the relationship between social constructivism, postcolonialism, and human trafficking, highlighting the relevance of norms, ideas, and identities in constructing inter and intrastate realities and ultimately, trafficking patterns. The interpenetration of religion and trafficking in persons as well as cultures of migration will be utilized as frameworks within which these norms and identities may be analyzed. Secondly, it will examine the trafficking dilemma in Edo state Nigeria, drawing on documented international reports and perceptions on the matter, while simultaneously contrasting it with local understandings and interpretations of the issue. This will bring to light stark differences in understanding of causal factors of trafficking in this region and thus, the limited positive results despite numerous efforts by the international community in the region. Thirdly, this thesis will analyze colonial legacies such as political economy, power dynamics, the politics of representation as well as race and racism in an attempt to unpack the ways certain aspects of colonialism remain pervasive not only in the Western mind but in the general conduct of relations internationally and the effect this has on trafficking. I argue that these neocolonial dynamics greatly influence the motivations for trafficking, while simultaneously enabling the practice on a global scale and establishing punitive measures primarily directed at economically and politically weaker participants. Next, this thesis will explore the flawed help imperative especially as it relates to imperial feminism, and calls for a need for more intersectional approaches to solving the trafficking problem and aiding victims. The purpose of this is to draw attention to some fundamental reasons for the failed efforts to curb trafficking.
To address these highlighted issues this thesis will use relevant academic literature from the fields of political science, international law, social work, sociology, and history. This diversity of sources is necessary because this is a venture that will require multidisciplinary as well as international collaborations.
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So far, after reviewing important works in each of the aforementioned fields, I found that there is a gap in the academic conversation in regard to cultural narratives, the lag between legislation and effective implementation, and demand, specifically regarding religious and ethnic groups outside of the typical Western lens. This is a gap that this thesis will attempt to bridge.
Emmanuel Adler’s constructivist notions in Seizing the Middle Ground: Constructivism in World Politics largely inspire the basis of this paper. He opines that constructivism occupies the middle ground between rationalist and interpretive theories and defines constructivism as “the view that the manner in which the material world shapes and is shaped by human action and interaction depends on dynamic normative and epistemic interpretations of the material world”. He stresses the intersubjective nature of world politics and regards international politics as a platform of interaction that is shaped by the actors’ identities and practices and influenced by constantly changing normative institutional structures. By using Adler’s conception of constructivism to explain the current state of international social and power relations especially as it applies to human trafficking, this paper argues that the internal mind worlds are reflected in the external world of modern trafficking patterns and thus, not only showcases the unrelenting grip of colonialism on the world and its ideologies but also the way it serves to quietly and subconsciously perpetuate these subconscious ideologies until they have become normative behaviors even among well-meaning individuals and organizations as they become reified overtime.
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