Talet om trafficking -­‐ en hegemonisk strävan med kamp om betydelser: En analys av europeiska handlingsplaner mot trafficking med människor

Abstract

This essay focuses on how trafficking is defined and dealt with in recent European policies, and particularly how prostitution take part of these discursive developments. Treaties and agreements on trafficking in human beings and for sexual exploitation have been made by the European Union and United Nations amongst others, which have been signed and ratified by the EU countries in Action Plans. In this essay, five national Actions Plans, from Austria, Great Britain, Poland, Spain and Sweden between 2007 and 2009, have been compared in order to see similarities and differences in how the phenomenon of trafficking is done through language. Based on Discourse theory and focus on discursive struggles, the result show a hegemony around trafficking as a social issue in the Action Plans studied, exploiting humans, mainly children and women, sexually, but also how trafficking is framed as a problem of the nation state and the domestic labour market. It is also illustrated how different meanings of prostitution make the trafficking discourse antagonistic and contested. Finally, the essay discusses the trafficking discourse in relation to EU strivings towards harmonisation and power imbalances of migration and economy in Europe.