What can Researchers do to Address Modern Slavery?
Researchers that belong to academic institutions or nonprofits have a role to play in providing credible information to guide action plans. They can also serve as relevant loci of coordination between stakeholders. As has been previously noted, the discourse around modern slavery tends to be anecdotal in nature. Researchers can play a role in developing more robust methodological approaches for data collection, evaluation, and predictive patterns. By 2008, a literature review on this subject matter found that “despite the increased interest in human trafficking, relatively little systematic, empirically grounded, and based on solid theoretical underpinnings research has been done on this issue” and that only 16% of the 218 journal articles reviewed were based on empirical research (Bump and Gozdziak 2008, 9).
This lack of studies is, according to Bales and Datta, at least partially explained by the dearth of hard data to analyze. As a result, policymakers may not have the best information available to inform decisions. As Denton pointedly notes, “inadequate research can lead to inadequate legislation” (Denton 2016). Furthermore, it leaves all interested parties in the dark as to the impact and effectiveness of the work being done or the initiatives being funded. As a consequence, there is little awareness or consensus on which initiatives should be scaled or replicated (J. Quirk 2009) and what the specific drivers for the issue are in specific contexts (International Labor Organization 2018).
Quality data allows for informed decisions on how to allocate scarce resources (M. N. Datta 2014). Although there continues to be concern about the extreme differential between the profits captured by MS and the funding allocated towards fighting it, we have reviewed a variety of initiatives that have funding from governments, private actors, multilaterals, and nonprofits. This differential is present in most transnational criminal activities and should serve as motivation to use the scarce resources as wisely and effectively as possible.
Links between abolitionist movements and today
One initial research effort sought to highlight the common threads between past manifestations of slavery and its contemporary corollaries. For Quirk, contemporary forms of slavery can be understood to be an evolution to the limitations and achievements of legal abolition (J. F. Quirk 2006). For example, the broad umbrella coverage of slavery today that includes bondage, serfdom, servitude, among others, can be traced to transforming the strict definiton of slavery into one that allowed for “sufficient similarity” to be the threshold as a result of the strict form of ownership being formally abolished. The ambiguity of the term partially explains the lack of coherence of current responses at both the non profit and regulatory levels. This ambiguity leads to two relevant challenges: it is difficult to determine who is a slave and who isn’t, and it is hard to identify which forms of action stakeholders will commit to implementing.
Historically, the rise of abolitionist movements in the XIX century broke apart from centuries of acceptance of the institution as such (this is not to say that there were not countless examples of individual resistance). For Quirk, the outcome of legally abolishing transatlantic slavery is notable because it represents a transformation of that which is acceptable and normal even among significant vested interests protecting it. From then onwards, slavery was conceptualized (at least under the western, global North predominant ideology) as an exploitative evil. That being said, millions of people remained in servitude around the world often under a distorted interpretation that allowed for domestic slavery and denounced trade slaves (J. F. Quirk 2006). The challenge today is that, having implemented the simple, formal solution of making it illegal, we are now facing evolving ways in which it currently appears and a plethora of overlapping strategies to target it. For Quirk, future efforts should focus on refining legal structures, enforcing existing laws, awareness, and rehabilitation (J. F. Quirk 2006). Case study reviews done in the early 2000’s found disparate efforts and results in terms of government cooperation and concerted strategy implementation, and an early realization that many global supply chains were affected by MS (Bales 2007). Later work started to shift towards quantitative analysis.
Quantitative Analysis
In general, data on criminal activities is difficult to ascertain. In order to conduct comparative, aggregate research, common variables need to be identified. In the past, studies on crime have relied on random victim sampling to identify the “dark figure” (the number of instances of a crime — the reported cases of the crime) (Biderman and Reiss 1967). The problem is that random-sample crime surveys assume the criminal event to be discrete and short-term but MS “as a crime is more a process than an event” (M. N. Datta and Bales 2013, 821). As such, it has an indeterminate period of victimization. Second, these surveys rely on the victim’s willingness to identify as such; MS presents a specially stigmatizing case in which survivors are not usually willing to report the crime (M. N. Datta and Bales 2013).
Although access to survivors of trafficking is difficult, methodologies from studies of other hidden populations could be adapted to this need. For example, rapid assessment, capture-recapture as used by the ILO in 2004 (M. N. Datta and Bales 2014), or respondent-driven sampling (RDS) could be piloted to develop accurate baselines for in-depth evaluations (Bump and Gozdziak 2008).
Relying on the UN Human Development Index (HDI) from 2012, Datta and Bales set out to test its relationship with the prevalence of slavery while controlling for literacy rates, democratic freedoms, and regional variations. A second test was conducted to evaluate the relationship between the prevalence of slavery and World Development indicators, particularly GDP, using the same three controls. They find that a 10% increase on the prevalence of slavery corresponds to a $526 decrease of GDP per capita. Thankfully, the authors recognize that GDP does not necessarily account for criminal activity and its economic output but suggest that at a systemic level, the results are useful to strengthen the case that slavery has negative global outcomes. The third and fourth hypotheses are related to lack of access to financial services and inequality (GINI index) for which there was a positive correlation: the more inequality and lack of access to financial services, the higher the prevalence of MS.
In 2013, Bales and Datta undertook a significant research effort to extrapolate from national surveys an estimate on the prevalence of slavery in Europe. Their findings suggested rates of underreporting of over 90% in France and similarly high figures for other countries (M. N. Datta and Bales 2013). Their recommendations were focused on a reprioritization of resources that would recognize this figure and catalyze more decisive actions for effective supporting of victims and prosecution.
A year later, the authors returned to the same database to test a set of variables as predictors of slavery: corruption, infant mortality rate, proportion of youth among the general population, food production, population density, social unrest. To measure state stability risk, they aggregated corruption measurements from Transparency International, governance data from the World Bank, judicial independence from the CIRI dataset, political instability from the Economist Intelligence Unit, violent crime based on UNODC data, and peace data from Vision of Humanity. The model also included women’s economic rights, freedom of speech, and access to financial services. Their findings present one of the first aggregate explorations of variables that affect and can potentially predict the incidence of MS. State stability had a 0.034 coefficient, but notably, freedom of speech had a coefficient of -1.245 meaning that a 1 unit increase on the freedom of speech score predicts a 125% reduction in modern slavery incidence (M. N. Datta and Bales 2014, 292). A parallel area of research was the study of the relation between the prevalence of MS and economic development measurements such as purchasing power parity or the GINI coefficient.
Who are the perpetrators?
Another area of study that requires attention is related to understanding the trafficker in a comprehensive way that overcomes the dichotomous framework of perpetrator/victim. Often, the trafficker and the victim come from similar backgrounds or ethnicity and even the same person can oscillate from one role to the other (Denton 2016). Although the common narrative is one in which perpetrators are seen as holding more social power than victims, this is not necessarily the case; they are part of complex organizational hierarchies in which those involved in the actual sale or trafficking of others are also vulnerable to exploitation from individuals in higher rungs (Shen 2016) and are often also members of marginalized communities. Therefore, it is important to distinguish the net beneficiaries of MS, from the facilitators who are often close to the victim in terms of status and power (Choi-Fitzpatrick 2017). In other words, those brokering the abuse are not necessarily those that capture the highest margins. To be perfectly clear, the fact that they are part of the same community and subject to systemic inequality does not eliminate the crime nor minimize its gravity. What it does allow is for researchers, policymakers, advocates, and other practitioners to have a clearer picture of the phenomena and integrate this into their responses.
Choi-Fitzpatrick suggests that even though criminal justice has now begun to incorporate the notion that trafficked individuals are victims, rather than criminals, the perpetrator is still conceptualized as a criminal for whom imprisonment or removal from the country is the prescribed response. This ignores the fact that they are often actors that are part of complex networks and there are systemic factors that catalyze the problem. “The incarceration of perpetrators (…) should certainly be part of this toolbox; however, to stop there would overestimate criminality and underestimate the roles of economics, politics, and culture as mobilizing factors in the perpetration of human trafficking and slavery” (Choi-Fitzpatrick 2017, 284).
What does freedom really mean?
A better understanding of the perpetrator may also allow advocacy groups or organizations working to eliminate MS to orient their work towards a more comprehensive understanding of what freedom/emancipation for the victim really entails: it cannot be a simple return to the original conditions because it is quite likely that structural inequality continues to exist. The controversy around freedom and what it entails was brought to the international spotlight with South Sudan slave raids to which several initiatives responded with fundraising campaigns to buy their freedom. This was met with heightened criticism for its potential to drive an increase in demand and the overall number of people enslaved (Appiah and Bunzl 2007). From a more long-term and theoretical approach, it is important to note that if the wrongness of slavery at least in part resides on the denial of self-respect for the person enslaved, then this would not necessarily cease to exist after formal emancipation has been reached. The challenges of developing a sense of agency and self-respect still remain (Appiah and Bunzl 2007). As Quirk mentions, the formal end of slavery is the beginning of an individual process of recovery and needs to be complemented with institutional strategies for addressing discrimination and exploitation (J. Quirk 2009).
It is also crucial to understand the regional variations with which this issue is interpreted from a local lens. Slavery is understood to be illegal, but not necessarily unethical or out of line with local practices in some contexts. Unequal socio-economic relations of caste systems may make addressing MS harder as perpetrators are acting within shared cultural norms. This interpretation entails that there are at least two approaches grounded on different assumptions for change: 1) enforcement, prosecution and incarceration as a means for deterrence and 2) redistribution of power through grassroots community organizing (Choi-Fitzpatrick 2017).
Organizational theory applied to MS
From an organizational standpoint, some researchers have tried to identify patterns and trends as to why some organizations rely on exploitation even though it is illegal in their jurisdiction. In this line of work, Crane set out to understand slavery from a management practice perspective in terms of its strategic fit in the business environment and the resources necessary to institute it. Regarding strategic fit, the prevalence of MS in agriculture, extractives, construction, and manufacturing reflects the high labor intensity, elasticity of demand, and regional clustering of these industries as elements that make it economically rational to do so (Crane 2017). Forced migration locks in low labor costs and makes technological development of economies of scale unnecessary in order to compete. Additionally, the low margins and relatively long chains of custody contribute to untraceable processes. When added to the few global players that buy the products and effectively set low prices, the picture for MS begins to appear complete. From an organizational capabilities and resources perspective, the supply of forced labor is usually a network of intermediaries that are highly coordinated and trust one another. The actual control is reinforced by rapid liability creation and escalation of debt owed to the organization — the exploited worker owes the exploiters. Another resource or capability that needs to be in place is the possibility of getting away with opaque accounting practices and deploying violence to enforce working arrangements (Crane 2017, 243). Finally, slave organizations need to be adequately able to respond to threats to their goals, primarily that of law enforcement. This is commonly done by undermining governance via bribes or building relationships with public officers. Through this framework, effectively addressing MS requires eroding the organizational capabilities that make it possible.
Overall, it is important that researchers contribute to understanding the impact and effects of regulation, private initiatives, and MSI’s on global supply chains and the workers that are part of the ecosystem. Quantitative methodologies and recent developments in data analytics can contribute to a better understanding of MS that have the potential to inform better targeted and more effective policies (M. N. Datta 2014).
SHINE — Levi’s, Target, Eileen Fisher
The summary on research literature on this subject is useful for demonstrating one way in which academia can play a more active role on this issue: quantitative analysis for informing broad policies. Another way is by establishing partnerships with brands and other stakeholders to leverage their expertise in rigorous methodologies for improving working conditions. An example of the latter is the partnership between Harvard’s T.H Chan School of Public Health’s Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE) and Levi Strauss & Co, Target Corp., and more recently, Eileen Fisher.
Launched in 2015, the goal of the partnership is to “determine a more robust approach to enhance the sustainability of supply chains and, specifically, to measure and implement best practices for the health and well-being of workers in supply chains” (Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE) 2019). The team started by adapting a survey toolkit initially developed between SHINE and Johnson and Johnson to the specific needs of apparel supply chains (Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE) 2016). The use of a survey tool instead of audits was meant to overcome the risk of bias from auditors and really incorporate worker voice into the metric (Weziak-Bialowolska et al. 2018). This was then used to benchmark worker well-being and track performance around engagement, health, and well-being in real team (Barwinski 2016). The data collected by the survey is anonymous and analyzed by researchers from SHINE.
There are multiple motivations for tracking the well-being of workers. One of them is that higher levels of employee well-being have been found to have a positive correlation with productivity and better overall performance (OECD 2017). A 2018 analysis of 7,000 survey results from Mexico, China, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia found that when factory performance metrics include worker voice and process improvements in occupational health and safety, stress, and job strain, then buyers have the opportunity to transform business practices of their suppliers, radically improve the lives of their workers, and meet their business goals. The connection between worker well-being and better business outcomes can serve as motivation for vendors to engage with their workforce in novel, healthier ways. The researchers tested three main relationships between adverse working conditions, physical/mental health, business outcomes, and the effects of job insecurity and impoverishment on worker development (human flourishing) (Weziak-Bialowolska et al. 2018). They also tracked the impact of specific management responses to the findings (ie. improving ventilation, addressing harassment, free transportation) and how much they improved survey results.
Overall, the authors conclude that the use of large scale surveys can provide a comprehensive view of the factory and allow for workers to participate in the improvement process in ways that current compliance audits do not allow for. Furthermore, this methodology for process improvement focuses on continuous improvement instead of meeting minimum standards. For work to really be a way to leave poverty and improve quality of life, conditions need to be conducive to physical and mental health. At the same time, this improves business outcomes (Weziak-Bialowolska et al. 2018).
Tufts Labor Lab — Better Work (ILO and IFC)
Since 2009, Tufts Labor Lab has been evaluating the Better Work program around the world by performing interviews with staff, unions, government officials, and workers; collecting surveys, running randomized control trials, and quasi-experimental methodologies. Compliance trends are evaluated with data collected on freedom of association, occupational health and safety, human resources, discrimination, forced labor, child labor, and compensation. The general context for this research is part of the effort to understand the relationships between working conditions, productivity, and costs. Previous research found that OSH inspections reduced accident-related costs without affecting profits and that compliance can increase sales (Distelhorst and Locke 2018; Levine, Toffel, and Johnson 2012).
In 2013, the program was presented as an alternative to enforcement by bringing together unions, governments, and buyers. The indicators for its success were defined as increases in compliance with national and international labor standards, and an increase in worker wellbeing. Tufts researchers relied on case studies from Better Work in Cambodia and Vietnam to test potential improvements for those two indicators (D. Brown, Dehejia, and Robertson 2013). The authors find some evidence of improvements in compliance in Cambodia and improvements in productivity which are not necessarily related to compliance. For the case of Vietnam, data suggests that there are improvements in well-being particularly for worker rights and worker health (D. Brown, Dehejia, and Robertson 2013). All in all, the conclusions are preliminary and the authors use cautionary language when presenting results. This may reflect the difficulty in establishing significant correlations between the variable of interest and other contextual elements that allow us to know that the improvements are inextricably tied to the implementation of Better Work and not to other factors.
In 2016, the highest non compliance area was occupational health and safety (D. Brown, Dehejia, and Rappaport 2016, xvii). The researchers include detailed reports on the evidence of the program in Nicaragua (improvements in mental health, discrimination, and pay practice), and overall trends in verbal abuse and sexual harassment in Indonesia, Vietnam, Jordan, and Haiti. In the majority of the countries there was a sustained decline of concerns on these topics. In terms of firm performance, they found increases in revenue in Vietnam. An indicator included in the study is the relationship between Better Work assessments and the sourcing practices of the buyers: they found that when suppliers pass the Better Work assessment, buyers are more likely to stop their own social audits. Nonetheless, pressure to comply with orders and short planning timelines are a business challenges the catalyzes overtime.
By 2018, the Labor Lab had focused some of its research on measuring specific impacts on cost, profits, productivity, and business terms in Vietnam, Indonesia and Jordan. Relying on results from manager and worker surveys through a Computer Assisted Personal Interview, the team coded data sets and used difference-in-difference methodologies to calculate the treatment effect of the program. The team found that the increases in productivity that result from Better Work participation are captured by workers as higher wages. A second relevant finding was that even though costs per unit can increase as factories comply with minimum wage requirements, profits still improve because factories are able to increase their prices and buyers are willing to place larger orders (D. K. Brown, Dehejia, and Robertson 2018).
Granted, as the work from the Tufts Labor Lab on the Better Work initiative demonstrates, there has been some progress made in terms of quantitative analysis of some initiatives since 2008 when the Gozdziak and Bump review was published.
Other researchers have conducted independent analysis relying on databases provided by companies themselves, non profits, or certification standards. For example, Egels-Zanden and Linhold used data from factory audits from the Fair Wear Foundation and found that codes of conduct have an uneven impact in improving worker rights (Egels-Zandén and Lindholm 2015). Another publication from the same year also suggests that conventional CSR mechanisms are relatively ineffective for addressing MS and suggests moving forward with a holistic approach (New 2015). This sort of research is part of what has catalyzed the push to go beyond auditing.
A significant contribution in this field was funded by the Walk Free Foundation and has created an aggregate database of evaluations of initiatives against MS. They have also published an analysis of the 179 evaluations in the database that confirms that although there has been progress in data collection, there is room for improvement in terms of program design and clearly identified objectives to measure against. Also, 90 of the evaluations are specifically focused on human trafficking, wherease only 3 are specifically evaluating slavery. (Bryant and Joudo 2018). Multilaterals have also played a role in evidence collection and analysis. The ILO produces estimates and so does the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) (International Labor Organization 2018)
References:
Appiah, Anthony, and Martin Bunzl, eds. 2007. Buying Freedom: The Ethics and Economics of Slave Redemption. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.
Bales, Kevin. 2007. Ending Slavery: How We Free Today’s Slaves. Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. of California Press.
Barwinski, Karoline. 2016. “Developing New Pathways to Transform Supply Chain Worker Well-Being.” HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/developing-new-pathways-to-transform-supply-chain-worker_b_5800f39be4b0f42ad3d25fde (November 22, 2019).
Biderman, Albert D., and Albert J. Reiss. 1967. “On Exploring the ‘Dark Figure’ of Crime.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 374(1): 1–15.
Brown, Drusilla, Rajeev Dehejia, and Ann Rappaport. 2016. The Impact of Better Work: A Joint Program of the International Labour Organization and the International Finance Corporation. Tufts Labor Lab.
Brown, Drusilla, Rajeev Dehejia, and Raymond Robertson. 2013. “Regulations, Monitoring, and Working Conditions: Evidence from Better Factories Cambodia and Better Work Vietnam.” http://users.nber.org/~rdehejia/papers/Brown_Dehejia_Robertson_RDW.pdf (February 10, 2019).
Brown, Drusilla K., Rajeev H. Dehejia, and Raymond Robertson. 2018. The Impact of Better Work: Firm Performance in Vietnam, Indonesia and Jordan. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. SSRN Scholarly Paper. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3130946 (November 22, 2019).
Bryant, Katharine, and Bernadette Joudo. 2018. “Promising Practices: What Works?” https://cdn.minderoo.com.au/content/uploads/2019/02/05180522/Promising-Practices-180213-p.pdf (October 19, 2019).
Bump, Micah N., and Elzbieta M. Gozdziak. 2008. “Data and Research on Human Trafficking : Bibliography of Research-Based Literature.” https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/551495 (November 18, 2019).
Choi-Fitzpatrick, Austin. 2017. “Letting Go: How Elites Manage Challenges to Contemporary Slavery.” In Contemporary Slavery, The Rhetoric of Global Human Rights Campaigns, eds. ANNIE BUNTING and JOEL QUIRK. Cornell University Press, 279–300. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt1w1vjxf.15 (June 20, 2019).
Crane, Andrew. 2017. “Modern Slavery from a Management Perspective:” In Contemporary Slavery, The Rhetoric of Global Human Rights Campaigns, eds. ANNIE BUNTING and JOEL QUIRK. Cornell University Press, 229–54. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt1w1vjxf.13.
Datta, Monti Narayan. 2014. “Using Big Data and Quantitative Methods to Estimate and Fight Modern Day Slavery.” SAIS Review of International Affairs 34(1): 21–33.
Datta, Monti Narayan, and Kevin Bales. 2013. “Slavery in Europe: Part 1, Estimating the Dark Figure.” Human Rights Quarterly 35(4): 817–29.
— — — . 2014. “Slavery in Europe: Part 2, Testing a Predictive Model.” Human Rights Quarterly 36(2): 277–95.
Denton, Erin. 2016. “Anatomy of Offending: Human Trafficking in the United States, 2006–2011.” Journal of Human Trafficking 2(1): 32–62.
Distelhorst, Greg, and Richard M. Locke. 2018. “Does Compliance Pay? Social Standards and Firm-Level Trade.” American Journal of Political Science 62(3): 695–711.
Egels-Zandén, Niklas, and Henrik Lindholm. 2015. “Do Codes of Conduct Improve Worker Rights in Supply Chains? A Study of Fair Wear Foundation.” Journal of Cleaner Production 107: 31–40.
International Labor Organization. 2018. Ending Forced Labour by 2030: A Review of Policies and Programmes. Geneva. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---ipec/documents/publication/wcms_653986.pdf (November 3, 2019).
Levine, D. I., M. W. Toffel, and M. S. Johnson. 2012. “Randomized Government Safety Inspections Reduce Worker Injuries with No Detectable Job Loss.” Science 336(6083): 907–11.
New, Stephen John. 2015. “Modern Slavery and the Supply Chain: The Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility?” Supply Chain Management: An International Journal. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/SCM-06-2015-0201/full/html (October 1, 2019).
OECD. 2017. Measuring the Impacts of Business on Well-Being and Sustainability. Paris: HEC. http://www.oecd.org/statistics/Measuring-impacts-of-business-on-well-being.pdf (November 22, 2019).
Quirk, Joel. 2009. “New Approaches to Combating Modern Slavery.” Human Rights Quarterly 31(1): 257–67.
Quirk, Joel Forbes. 2006. “The Anti-Slavery Project: Linking the Historical and Contemporary.” Human Rights Quarterly 28(3): 565–98.
Shen, Anqi. 2016. “Female Perpetrators in Internal Child Trafficking in China: An Empirical Study.” Journal of Human Trafficking 2(1): 63–77.
Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE). 2016. “Shining a Light on Worker Well-Being.” Ideas from the SHINE NetPositive Summit. https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/shine/files/workerwellbeing.pdf (November 22, 2019).
— — — . 2019. “Worker Well-Being Survey.” Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. https://shine.sph.harvard.edu/worker-well-being-survey (November 22, 2019).
Weziak-Bialowolska, Dorota, Eileen Mcneely, Tamar Koosed, and Carlued Leon. 2018. “A New Approach to the Well-Being of Factory Workers in Global Supply Chains: Evidence from Apparel Factories in Mexico, Sri Lanka, China and Cambodia.” In , 130–54.
