The Myth of Trafficking: Most Migrant Women, Including Those in the Sex Industry, Have Made a Clear Decision, Says a New Study, to Leave Home and Take Their Chances Abroad. They Are Not "Passive Victims" in Need of "Saving" or Sending Back by Western Campaigners

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It is always refreshing to read a book that turns an issue on its head. Laura Maria Agustin's trenchant and controversial critique of the anti-trafficking crusade goes a step further: it lays out the matter--in this case, "human trafficking"--on the operating table, dissects it, unravels its innards, and shows the reader, in gory, sometimes eye-watering detail, why everything we think about it is Wrong with a capital W. It's a jarring read; I imagine that those who make a living from campaigning against the scourge of human trafficking will throw it violently across the room, if not into an incinerator. Yet it may also be one of the most important books on migration published in recent years.

Most of us recognise the ideological underpinnings of old-style baiting of migrants. When newspaper hacks or populist politicians talk about evil Johnny Foreigners coming here and stealing our jobs or eating our swans, it does not take much effort to sniff out their xenophobic leanings. Agustin's contention is that the new "discourse" on migrants (in which many of them, especially the women and children, are seen as "victims of trafficking" in need of rescue) is also …