ABSTRACT
This chapter offers examples of voluntary movement and decision-making a counter-point to the coerced victim archetype. It presents the elements of the Trafficking Protocol that misrepresent victims' roles in their movement. The chapter outlines evidence of rationally-based decision-making including voluntary acceptance of risk and pre-planning, particularly in search of social and economic betterment. It examines those so-called push factors that reflect diminished voluntariness and freedom of choice, particularly presumed links between domestic violence, lack of social bonds and human trafficking. The chapter highlights the limited value and, in fact, inaccuracy of portraying trafficking, exploitation and women's movement with the image of naive or duped women. Several informants in Vietnam indicated that a shift in thinking had taken place about trafficking, away from the notion of physical coercion in the form of kidnapping, towards the exploitation of the economic migrant in destination countries. The Trafficking Protocol fails to reflect the high levels of voluntary acceptance of risk evident in trafficking.
