ABSTRACT

The dominant narrative of human trafficking relies on the depiction of three key characters – an ideal victim, a foreign villain and a Western hero. Cultural assumptions around gender, age and ethnicity have constrained the trafficking narrative, shaped by metanarratives of consumerism, anti-migration and Western exceptionalism. This constrained narrative obscures the diversity of victims’ experiences and the complexity of the causes of the problem. In this concluding chapter of Challenging the Human Trafficking Narrative, I question the moral of the story posed by the dominant trafficking narrative and consider how the narrative can be shaped and evolved. The moral of the trafficking story offers a Western-centric interpretation turning on the action, or inaction, of the hero. In order to respond to trafficking and labour exploitation in a victim-centric way, we must shift the narrative focus away from stories of heroic rescue. I urge a continued evolution of the trafficking narrative, to challenge the metanarratives that entrench narrow character depictions, and to imagine new ways of telling trafficking stories.