Research Paper Example about Globalization and Human Trafficking

Globalization refers to a trend in which there is an increase in interoperability and cooperation among the people of the world due to innovation and modernization of transport and communication. Globalization covers four major segments namely; free flow of information, migration of people between continents, capital and investment mobility as well as trading and business transactions. Economics, natural environment, business activities and cultural resources influence and in turn get impacted by globalization.

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Globalization is sub-divided into Economic, Cultural and Political globalization. Economic globalization involves the heightening interdependence among world businesses focused on the creation of joint markets fuelled by eased movement of services, commodities, capital, and technology. Business barriers such as tariffs are also reduced leading to increased business transaction processes. Cultural globalization is brought about by the diffusion of ideas, values, and meanings through the internet, international travel and other social media platforms thus increasing social relations across the planet. That has instilled commonality among the people thus helping foster understanding worldwide. (Dauvergne, Catherine, 4). Political globalization has again gotten its place through the development of international bodies and institutions aimed at creating common governance and fostering unity among world states.

On the other hand, trafficking in humans typically means the transportation, recruitment harboring, transfer or receipt of individuals either by use of force, abduction, and deception. Human trafficking can also be done by giving or receiving of the unlawful benefits or payments to get the consent of an individual having the control of another person for exploitation purposes. Human trafficking becomes a human scenario which has been and is still being exercised for many years now. Just like any other economic crisis, also human trafficking becomes another global crisis which gets inextricably connected to the current trend of globalization in the sex industries which include children and women. The paper will, therefore, explore contemporary globalization issues.

Economic globalization as the facilitator of the human trafficking

The globalization process is mainly pronounced and get entrenched in the economy of the world. The developing integrated economy of the world is enabling human trafficking to progress. Globalization enhances interdependence among states for commerce and improves the transfer of the commodities. The comparative advantage of commodities including the affordable labor in the developing countries has done a crucial role in exploiting and objectify humans for economic solutions. (Gilman, Nils, Jesse Goldhammer, and Steven Weber, 4)

The concept and issue of human trafficking coupled with its practices are well exhausted, and precisely how the current issues in this field are attributed to and get affected by globalization, leading to human trafficking. Further discussed is the violence and harms that result from human trafficking coupled with the influences and powers that the responsible state bodies have about controlling and bringing the menace of human trafficking under control.

Human trafficking is not currently an emerging issue since it has attracted the attention of media and in the region of the past twenty years. Horrifying stories of torture, sexual slavery and commercial sex workers employment and exploitation by associated cartels - as covered by media - have ignited thorough writing and exposition on this subject by the newspaper authors and scholars, aimed at informing of the extent of this rot as well as alerting the potential victims. They have helped inform the extent of human trafficking as well as identifying the main reasons behind the crime together with the techniques of addressing the menace and preventing it from occurring further.

Human trafficking has to get differentiated from smuggling. Although the two concepts have a semblance of meaning the same thing, they refer to different things. Their main difference is the fact that smuggling hardly involves the use of force, extra energy and power during execution and once the person being smuggled has arrived at the final destination, they are not forced to do certain things. That is, they are left free to do as they wish and are also left to settle like the occupants of that country. On the other hand, the people who get trafficked have no any form of freedom; they must do what their masters want them to, whether they like it or not. Nowadays, it has been referred to as modern-day slavery because most of its characteristics are similar to those of slavery. (Gutierrez, Natividad, and Jenny B. Clark, 5).

The difficulty that exists in distinguishing between smuggling and human trafficking goes farther into highlighting the harm and more problems that the victims of trafficking submerge themselves in when they attempt to seek assistance from the responsible officials and police officers of their host countries. It is because they can be arraigned in police custody and severely charged and even beautiful when they report such cases they try to get help. Hence they are forced to keep silence, exposing them to more trouble since they have to continue putting up with their current pathetic states.

Goodey argues in his work 'Human Trafficking; sketchy data and policy responses' that smuggling translates to human trafficking in the event the smuggled person undergoes and receives exploitation and some form of torture at any spot from the time he/she is introduced through arrival in the final destination. He further admits that in real life situations, it can be difficult to distinguish between human trafficking and smuggling directly because the smugglers could be taken as exploiting the willing people who are being smuggled to pay some amount of money to facilitate the process. They, in most cases, can be charged extortionately in such a way that they can loan with extremely high interest, which requires that the immigrant pay in short periods. However, when they have finished paying, they are now left free to stay as they want.

Highlighted in the Home office report titled 'Stopping traffic' which exposes on exploring the extent of, the response to trafficking in women for the sexual harassment, it is pointed out that an element of freedom come into existence as a factor that separates smuggling from human trafficking. (Jammal, Rasha,6). It points out the fact that women who are trafficked are under the control of their traffickers and are treated as part of their business entity. The ones who traffic them will inevitably pay for the transport costs they incur, falsify documents and pay the bribes amidst a host of other expenses, to make the process of trafficking a success. They will in turn subject the victim to prostitution and commercial sex activities as they try to regain their money.

It has been apparently put across that that globalization has had a considerable role to play hence has impacted much on the increase of human trafficking and smuggling in the recent years. Lack of and inadequacy of economic opportunities for women and the vulnerable groups' developing countries has been cited as one of the leading factors that have contributed to human trafficking. Poverty and desperation that are faced and undergone by young women are seen as central reasons underlying the question as to why a significant number of women are more than willing to migrate. The methods of recruitment that are used by traffickers do vary, but in most cases, they involve the use of friends, partners, and family members of the trafficked victims. Recruitment can also be facilitated through an agency that advertises for jobs abroad. However, they are false job opportunities. The victims are lured by the false prospects and fortunes promised by traffickers. Internet, too, has become an essential tool in the recruitment of victims to be trafficked.

In her article 'Popular strangers and crises - bounded: discourses of sex-trafficking, the European political community and panicked state of the modern state' cites that the evolvement and development of the societies, economic, political and social evolvement, have impacted on human trafficking and the globalization of this vice. She sets out arguments to support her viewpoints and notions of human trafficking as a globalized and gendered crime. However, in her work, the two concepts of human trafficking and smuggling are commonly referred to as one concept, which in turn can create harm of greater magnitude in the side for trafficked victims since they are taken as no more than illegal immigrants. She further analyzes the reasons behind globalization and influences economic and social globalization have rendered on human trafficking. (Jammal, Rasha, 6).

Violence, harm and adverse effects of human trafficking are more than just physical abuse by traffickers. They often extend after the period of abuse has ended. They extend even at the police station where responsible authorities seem to be more concerned with the removal of illegal immigrants instead of assisting the victims of trafficking exercise. The difficulty with recognizing the victims of trafficking is in the fact that even victims themselves do not necessarily know that what has happened to them has, in the long run, made them such victims. Fear of deportation and prosecution, such as being tagged as a criminal, makes it even harder and challenging for the victims to come out openly and identify themselves as victims of human trafficking. Women are urged to help with the prosecution to be able to continue staying in the country, sadly such assistance does not necessarily extend after the prosecution period of the traffickers, and it indeed does not involve to their families who are still in their country of origin.

In ('Human Trafficking as a Form of Transnational Crime,' 2007), Shelley critically analyzes and expounds on the techniques that are used by traffickers in their bid to gain to ascertain and assure control over their victims once the processes of recruiting and detaining them in their countries of destination. She states that the traffickers are hardly caught and successfully prosecuted mainly because of lack of support expected from victims of trafficking exercise. (Kara, Siddharth,7).

On the other hand, Berman's work in 'Popular strangers and crises bounded: discourses of sex-trafficking, the European political community and the panicked state of the modern state.' She argues that there is the limited protection of trafficking victims and that the excessive pressure put on the victims to further detriment both their lives and the lives of their loved ones is unimaginably vast. The lack of adequate protection makes many traffickers go unpunished, while the real victims are then treated as illegal criminals.

The most significant harm is the violation of human rights of trafficked women. It has gotten to be shown that trafficked women who are sold to different people are subject to severely greater abuse. The abuses suffered by trafficked women have coupled with the miseries that their traffickers impose upon them. They coerce them and intimidate their lives and those of the loved ones, which are the methods, used by traffickers to ensure that such victims of trafficking do remain under their control while doing as they tell them.