This ethnographic study examines the implementation of US anti-trafficking policy in the New York metropolitan area. Anti-trafficking laws, increasingly implemented at the national and international level, aim to prevent the real and serious problem of forced, coerced, or deceptive movement of people into exploitative conditions of labor. Specifically, this study focuses on the diverse meanings and consequences of a recent US law, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000, for government officials, victims of trafficking, and the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who provide services to them under the legislation.
Using a combination of ethnographic methods and policy analysis, this project links and contrasts the abstract terms of policy and how it is implemented locally and translated into service delivery on the ground. The study investigates the relationship between how the law is conceptualized and written and how federal officials and service providers implement it. The study uses multiple methods at multiple sites, including participant observation, in-depth life history interviews, archival research, and policy analysis. The investigator will examine how government officials, trafficked women, and the organizations providing them with services use, understand, and interpret the law. This combination of methods will enable one to compare data and contrast individuals' interpretations of the TVPA with the actual terms of law and policy.
Broader Impacts: This study has practical applications for lawmakers and NGO service providers seeking to better understand the impact of anti-trafficking law and policy on victims of severe forms of trafficking, and ultimately improve the ways in which it can be utilized to benefit these individuals. Ethnography of trafficked women's interactions with NGO service providers will illuminate the ways in which federal policy is operationalized at the local level and how national policies on migration and trafficking affect the everyday lives of trafficked women. The study will shed light on broader uses of gender within the phenomenon of people trafficking.
