ABSTRACT
This chapter considers human trafficking to be best described as a problem of slavery or a problem faced largely by migrant workers. The legal definition of human trafficking – which is remarkably consistent across US federal and international law – has been subject to wide-ranging interpretations. While human trafficking was once viewed as functionally equivalent to criminalized sexual gender violence, recent scholarly and legal efforts have targeted labor-sector human trafficking, specifically migrant labor exploitation. This nascent focus on labor exploitation, while a step in the right direction, is nonetheless insufficient to address the global problem of human trafficking. Recent changes in how the US State Department interprets the federal anti-trafficking statute, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), prove this point. The TVPA also allows trafficked persons to enforce payment of wages that exceed the federal minimum wage, which the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not provide.
