Banal Exclusion: How Victim Tropes Limit Referrals and the Identification of Human Trafficking Survivors

Keywords: human trafficking, migration governance, immigration, modern slavery, borders
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 59

Abstract

Burridge et al (2017) conceptualised the term polymorphous borders to describe the ways in which migratory systems of governance prevent humanitarian protection seekers from accessing safety, support, or claiming status. This occurs through the use of hotspots and detention, but also through more banal forms of humanitarian service provision that segregates migrants, limiting their knowability and restricting opportunities for use of autonomy. This research applies that lens to analysis of the National Referral Mechanism system in the United Kingdom and the treatment of survivors of human trafficking. Combining a mixed methods approach employing NRM data, interviews with stakeholders, and an evidence review, we focus on understanding how the process of victim identification and referral disadvantages certain country of origin groups and undermines their claims to protection. The system privileges a particular victim narrative as a result to the exclusion of other individuals along racialized lines. Consequently, these individuals are more likely to experience ongoing precarity with risks to forced return and possible retrafficking.