Abstract
In 2000, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which confers certain rights to people who have been trafficked into the United States for forced labor: a visa (T visa), social service benefits, and the right to eventual permanent residency. This insightful, well-written, and well-researched book is about the people who have been granted T visas since the inception of the program. It is also about the policies and politics that shape their experience.
Although the explicit focus is on a very small population—less than four thousand people have obtained a T visa—the ramifications are much wider. This book is of relevance to migrant workers and refugees in general; sex workers, both immigrant and resident; staff and volunteers in organizations and agencies that work with these populations; and, of course, scholars working on any of these issues.
In the first chapter, Brennan lays out her critique of the TVPA and the uses to which it has been put by politicians and others. As she points out, trafficking into forced labor is merely one end of a continuum of exploitative practices that many millions of immigrant workers face. The U.S. government’s binarization of this continuum into trafficked/not trafficked makes little sense and leaves the vast majority of exploited immigrants—including those who may actually have been trafficked but cannot prove it—without any recourse at all. If you have been trafficked, you get a visa and benefits; if you have merely been exploited, you get deported. There is also a disconnect between the benefits that the TVPA provides and those that the formerly trafficked people actually need. A further issue is that the TVPA has been politicized and put to use as a tool for certain interests. For example, the Bush administration focused all its efforts on combating coerced prostitution and failed to recognize other forms of forced labor. Sex workers who have freely chosen their profession found themselves targeted by police and others who sought to “rescue” them against their wills, while agricultural and domestic workers were held in bondage with no hope of help from law enforcement. These issues are fleshed out further in subsequent chapters as we hear the narratives of Brennan’s interviewees.
The heart of the book is the stories of the formerly trafficked workers whom Brennan has gotten to know over the course of her research. These stories are not told in one piece but are broken into segments following the organization of the book. Chapter 2 deals with life in forced labor and eventual escape. Subsequent chapters focus on the problems of putting one’s life back together afterward: a difficult job even with the benefits of T visa status. Along the way, Brennan points out both the similarities between experiences of formerly trafficked people and those of other immigrants and low-wage workers and the distinctive problems that formerly trafficked people face.
Brennan is an anthropologist, and thus, her work is based on long-term observation and immersion in the population she writes about. She does not just interview the people she writes about; she gets to know them over the course of years. Empathy and respect for these people permeate the book. Brennan is also sympathetic to the frontline workers—social workers, staff of shelters and immigrant advocacy groups, and lawyers—who try to make the sometimes illogical or unfair system work for their clients. On the contrary, she is unsparing in her criticism of agencies and organizations that purport to help while pushing their own political or moral agendas (antiabortion, antiprostitution, etc.)
The text of this book is a mere 192 pages. But it is followed by 43 pages of notes, which tend to be complementary to the narrative; they are seldom mere citations. Read them along with the text. This is a valuable book for anyone interested in plumbing beneath the superficial on matters of immigration. It is also a good read.