Exploitation tends to be evaluated and classified according to levels of relative severity. Lines are routinely drawn between acceptable and unacceptable, between normal and exceptional, and between ‘severe’ and ‘everyday’ exploitation. Not everyone draws these lines in the same way, but there is nonetheless a near universal consensus that some forms of exploitation are much more severe than others. These variations in experience are most commonly described in terms of a spectrum, or continuum. Some practices are said to belong at the pinnacle. Others instead fall further down the scale.
The category of ‘modern slavery’ can be best understood as a politically motivated effort to draw attention to the most extreme cases. It primarily operates as an evocative concept, rather than a legal category, with slavery serving as a catch-all signifier for the ‘worst of the worst’. Many governments and other actors are attracted to this formula. It concentrates attention upon a small number of ‘exceptional’ cases, and thereby ends up tacitly legitimating – or at least de-prioritising – everyday abuses and systems.
This worst-of-the-worst formula only really makes sense in comparative terms. If slavery is really bad (and it undoubtedly is), then what is it really bad in comparison to? It is exceptionally difficult to determine either the nature or degree of exploitation without comparing one set of circumstances to another. Not all comparisons look the same, but there are two core themes which play a key role when it comes to contemporary assessments of exploitation: consent and treatment.
