ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the forms of control and exploitation that shape migrants’ lives, and how these relate to the controls in trafficking. Researchers have identified human trafficking of Filipinos as a problem of the lack of migrants’ rights, where the law maintains their vulnerability and social exclusion. In the context of structural violence, the multiple “goads” and “fences” at various levels of society represent macro-level coercion and control in the processes of migration. This chapter explores the multiple ways that globalisation is evident in the ever-changing social realities and the processes which relate to human trafficking, particularly through the complex and integral role of migration in Filipino society. It shapes the social and shared cultural narratives which create and answer fundamental questions about identity, norms and values, and the place of people in the world. In the context of international inequality, globalisation finds concrete expression in local lives and actions, where individuals navigate multiple risks and violences shaped by local and global processes.
