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The phrase ‘human trafficking’ in relation to young people has become synonymous with ‘the worst forms of child labour’ in much of the public discourse. There is virtually no space to discuss the phenomenon of minors working away from home in terms of ‘migration’. There is a need to unsettle these certainties. My colleague Simon Baker and I, based on our research and that of our colleagues, argue that it is misleading to understand the involvement of minors in migration exclusively as a problem of human trafficking. To do so falsely homogenises the wide diversity of young people’s migrations that could, according to the definition found in the 2000 Palermo Protocol, qualify as child trafficking. Recognising this diversity of experience allows us to see why the standard formula of ‘rescue–repatriation–reintegration’ is highly problematic. It also sheds light on how dominant trends in child trafficking discourse can lead to interventions that negatively impact the lives of children who need or wish to migrate for work.
Analytically, child trafficking constitutes one of the worst approaches to child migration. We list three reasons. First, it disconnects young people’s involvement in migration from the wider issues of migration and social change to which it is intrinsically linked. Second, it suggests that migrants below 18 years of age are inherently vulnerable without asking how exploitation in migration is produced. For example, such exploitation can occur because those younger than 18 years of age are often excluded from safer channels of migration and documented forms of migrant work. Third, the victim-centred perspective produced by dominant human trafficking discourse leaves little space to conceive of, and study, young people as active participants and agents in their own migrations.
