Finally, Explain Insights or Conclusions You Gained

¶ … Finally, explain insights or conclusions you gained as a result. Be specific.

Opposing perspectives: Human trafficking

At first glance, it might seem as if every right-minded human being would be opposed to human trafficking. While on some level this is the case, there are considerable divisions in terms of the question of how to address the phenomenon. Some people believe that human trafficking should be addressed from a feminist perspective, focusing on women in the sex industry. Others believe it should be addressed as a more 'macro' phenomenon, and see it as a symptom of illegal immigration and world poverty. But even more importantly the question of what to do with victims who have been trafficked -- should they be allowed to remain within the United States, or should they be returned to their home nations?

Advocates of returning the victims to their nations of origin point out that they might not have better lives in the U.S., given that many lack the language and employment skills to succeed at anything besides minimum wage jobs. Also, some victims are not entirely coerced into their employment -- although they may not truly be 'consensual' in the work they are doing, given that its nature is not fairly paid nor is it fairly represented, if trafficking is rewarded through amnesty, then many victims may actually continue to agree to go along with it, in the desperate hope of leaving the poverty in their homeland. Also, governments may be more apt to tacitly facilitate trafficking, as a way to be rid of the surplus population of the very poor. "In many countries, such as Thailand, trafficking has resulted in a large illegal economy that is well integrated into the country's power structure" (Loring, Engstrom, Hillard & Dias 2007:5) Although no one could reasonable argue against offering amnesty to victims who would face serious repercussions from oppressive governments, should they return home, on the other hand many counter that widespread amnesty for victims without a careful examination of their situations on a case-by- case basis is no solution to the problem of trafficking, given that it does not address the core problems of poverty at home, nor the structural imbalances of power between men and women that facilitate the practice.