Publication Details

The issue of poverty in global policy debates on forced labour: A critical perspective

Vulnerable workers in global production networks: Case studies of forced and child labour in Brazil and India working paper series

Nicola Phillips
Fabiola Mieres
2011

Abstract

It is universally accepted in academic and policy debates that poverty and forced labour are connected with one another, but little attention has been given to understanding how exactly they are related. Furthermore, many of the dominant frameworks which guide policy and other strategic interventions on forced labour rest on assumptions which are partial or misleading, overlooking the many complexities of the poverty-forced labour nexus. Focusing specifically on the forms of forced labour that arise in global production networks, we argue that the problem lies predominantly in the resilience of ‘residual’ approaches to both poverty and forced labour, in which these conditions result from various forms of exclusion, and suggest an alternative perspective which explores their ‘relational’ character, resulting from the terms of inclusion in global economic activity. Without an understanding of the ways in which the varied dimensions of poverty are produced and reproduced, we contend that it is not possible to adequately understand the root causes of the worst kinds of exploitation associated with forced labour. Nor is it possible to think in policy terms about the means of addressing those underlying causes, rather than the symptoms of the problem, and devising effective strategies for prevention.

This paper is part of a series on Vulnerable workers in global production networks: Case studies of forced and child labour in Brazil and India.