The Banality of Trafficking: Exploitation in Migrant Labor Markets in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates

Few issues in the international arena elicit the same vigorous and passionate response as does human trafficking. Today human trafficking features as one of the most prominent concerns in international affairs, despite being... [ view full abstract ]

Few issues in the international arena elicit the same vigorous and passionate response as does human trafficking. Today human trafficking features as one of the most prominent concerns in international affairs, despite being virtually unheard of only twenty years ago. Numerous documentaries, TV shows, and feature films have popularized trafficking’s horrors while countless organizations have emerged to try to put an end to the illicit trade. Yet despite this perceived clarity in the political and popular imagination, robust debates persist in academic and political circles about what trafficking is, the scope of the problem and how to eliminate it. This project seeks to add to this conversation, considering one portion of the trafficking problem: trafficking for labor exploitation. It situates human trafficking in political economic theory and illustrates the issue’s close ties to the logic of the present economic order. Through the analysis of two case studies, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, it asks: how has a human trafficking framework affected labor exploitation? From its findings it draws broader conclusions for the fight against trafficking on a global scale and raises questions for further study.