Call For Papers: Conference at the University of Toronto

Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies
Faculty of Arts and Science
University of Toronto
The Commodification of Illicit Flows:Labour Migration, Trafficking and Business
October 9-10, 2009
Call for Papers

The Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies is calling for papers analyzing human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation within the contexts of migration and the global economy. Scholars and practitioners from all academic disciplines, including economics, law, social sciences, business, women and gender studies, public policy, health are invited to submit their work. People working with relevant governmental agencies and NGOs are also invited to apply.

The existing literature and research on sex trafficking has been burgeoning steadily at the expense of those written on human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation. Migrant workers compelled by their economic deprivation in their home countries are seeking better life opportunities abroad. If their journey is well managed and legal, they will be safe and protected from exploitation and abuse. Nevertheless, many are threatened or coerced to enter debt bondage arrangements that have pernicious implications on their rights to freedom, economic prosperity and social status. Their forced labour produces goods offered and sold in both licit and illicit markets. Some corporations and businesses are in search of this same cheap transnational labour in an attempt to increase their profits and remain competitive.

In an attempt to expand the existing scholarship on labour trafficking, themes to be focused upon will include the following:

• The (Il)licit in Migration and Human Trafficking
• The Current Economic Crisis: Implications on Migration and LabourTrafficking
• Socio-Economic Dimensions of Labour Trafficking
• Forms of Labour Trafficking
• Historical and Contemporary Aspects of Bondage
• Child Trafficking for Labour Exploitation
• Businesses and Child labor: Financial Analysis of Trafficked Labour
• Corporate Liability and Code of Conduct
• Government Responses to Illegal Migration and Trafficking in HumanBeings
• International Labour and Human Rights Standards

A one page abstract should be sent to Antonela Arhin at cdts@utoronto.ca by June 15, 2009. Acceptance notifications will be made by June 30. Submissions of final papers will be accepted until September 1, 2009.

For more information, please visit the Centre's website.