ABSTRACT
Introduction Human trafficking is a major concern for those studying human rights and human security issues such as population and migration, economics, politics, and international relations. Human trafficking is “so widespread and so damaging to its victims that it has become a significant cause of human insecurity” on a global scale (Friman and Reich, 2007, p. 136; Human Security Centre, 2005, p. 86). The purpose of this chapter is to assess and to examine problems associated with human trafficking through the discipline of human security and development studies. The chapter will begin by addressing growing concerns about globalization and how it promotes inequalities that foster human trafficking. Also examined will be the contribution that population and migration, poverty and economics, gender and missing girls, and immigration and refugees make to human trafficking. This chapter will evaluate conflict, political instability, societal violence, and government corruption; it will also explore the role of consumerism and resource scarcity as well as societal and cultural values and how they contribute to the growing trade of trafficking in humans.
