History of Gender Commons^™

The Ngo-Ification Of The Anti-Trafficking Movement In The United States: A Case Study Of The Coalition To Abolish Slavery And Trafficking, Jennifer Lynne Musto

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

While NGOs proffer valuable services to trafficked persons, this paper maps how increased professionalization of the anti-trafficking movement in the U.S. has curtailed trafficked persons’ efforts to organize a movement that speaks to their experiences and needs. In order to highlight tensions and exclusionary practices that exist within the professionally centered U.S. anti-trafficking movement, I present one case study of a Los Angeles based NGO dedicated to providing social services and political advocacy to trafficked persons. By examining the micropolitics of advocacy work, this paper explores how funding pressures and ideological debates about prostitution have delimited trafficked persons’ ability to …