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1 from Metaphor of Slavery to Metaphor of Freedom FROM METAPHOR OF SLAVERY TO METAPHOR OF FREEDOM: ARTICLE 18 AND THE INCORPORATION OF MIGRANT PROSTITUTES INTO ITALIAN SOCIETY By Patrizia Testaì, MSc. Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2008 1 Abstract This thesis is concerned with the debate on ‘trafficking in persons’ as a new form of slavery. It will explore the concept of slavery both historically and in its links with contemporary migration and connected issues of gender, sexuality, and labour exploitation. Within the contemporary debate on ‘trafficking’, attention has focused in fact predominantly on migrant women and girls involved in sex work and described as ‘victims of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation’. This thesis will explore the meaning of slavery in such debate. For this purpose, a research study will be carried out in three Italian cities, focusing on the ways in which such terms as ‘slavery’, ‘trafficking in persons’, and ‘sexual slavery’ are understood and applied within social protection programmes for victims of trafficking which, under Article 18 of the immigration law, grant a special residence permit and opportunities for such victims to work and stay permanently in Italy. The study is based on interviews with key actors working in social protection programmes such as judges, NGO workers, social workers, psychologists, lawyers, and police officers, on interviews with migrant women working in the sex industry and women using protection programmes, and on the analysis of parliamentary speeches and press articles. It will seek to critically assess the validity of ‘new slavery’ - as ‘trafficking’ is usually understood - as an expression to understand problems related to contemporary exploitative labour practices within the context of global poverty, dislocation of capital and labour, and restrictive immigration regimes. It will focus on the gender, ‘racial’, and sexuality aspects of anti-trafficking policies in Italy and how they get linked to citizenship within the socio-legal process enacted by Article 18 of the Italian immigration law. It will finally ask what kind of citizenship is granted to subjects who have been Otherised as ‘slaves’ on the basis of their gender and sexuality and who, through a postcolonial process of discipline and social control, are incorporated into the Italian society via their 2 ‘domestication’ within ‘proper’ sexual, gender, and labour roles (i.e. as domestic workers in Italian families or as wives). 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Institute for the Study of Slavery (ISOS) of the University of Nottingham, for having awarded me a PhD scholarship, which has supported me during the three years of research, and for the extra travel grants I received to take part in conferences on the topics related to this thesis. Special thanks go to Professor Dick Geary, of the Department of History, and to Professor Julia O’Connell Davidson, of the Department of Sociology and Social Policy, whose co- supervision in their capacities as historian and sociologist respectively, has made this work possible in this form. From the beginning to the final stage, they have, in their respective roles and competences, assisted and encouraged me in many ways, including provision of specific sources and some English language aspects. Thanks also to Laura Brace for her kind and careful comments on issues of property, slavery and belonging. This thesis would have not been possible without the cooperation of all those women and men who have accepted to provide me with precious information about their work and experiences, even if this, for some of them, meant to go though painful moments of their lives. One last thank to my ‘old’ friend Robert who has taken upon himself the great burden of going through a whole thesis draft for a first English language check-up. 4 Glossary of Abbreviations BSA British Sociological Association CATW Coalition Against Trafficking in Women CDA Contagious Diseases Acts CPTA Centri di Permanenza Temporanea ed Assistita (Temporary Stay and Assistance Centres) CER Campaign to End Rape DS Democratici di Sinistra (Democrats of the Left) ECP English Collective of Prostitutes EU European Union GAATW Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women ILO International Labour Organisation IOM International Organisation for Migrations LILA Lega Italiana Lotta contro L’AIDS (Italian League Fighting Against AIDS) LNA Ladies’ National Association MEP Member of the European Parliament MIT Movimento Identità Transessuali (Movement for the Identity of Transsexual People) MP Member of Parliament NGO Non Governmental Organisation PPI Partito Popolare Italiano (Italian People’s Party) RCF Rape Crisis Federation STD Sexually Transmitted Disease SW Sex Worker TVPA Trafficking Victim Protection Act VoT Victim of Trafficking WHO World Health Organisation 5 List of Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 4 Glossary of Abbreviations 5 Chapter 1 Introduction 9 Chapter 2 Methodology 19 2.1 Choice of research sites 21 2.1.1 Fieldwork in Catania 23 2.1.2 Fieldwork in Lecce 29 2.1.3 Fieldwork in Rome 33 2.1.4 The interview schedule 40 2.2 Interviews with sex workers and women in protection programmes 41 2.3 Analysing fieldwork data 45 2.4 Reflections on methodology 48 2.4.1 The sample 49 2.4.2 Research ethics 50 2.4.3 Translation 56 Chapter 3 Slavery: the academic debate 58 3.1 Defining slavery 60 3.2 Feminist theory and slavery: wives and prostitutes as slave subjects 71 3.3 Slavery and ‘white slavery 77 3.4 The Trafficking Protocol 80 3.5 Kevin Bales and ‘new slavery’: a critique 89 Conclusions 97 Chapter 4 Slavery as Metaphor, Encounters with the Other and the Italian Context of Migration 102 4.1 Metaphors, freedom, colonial missions and the nation: the Italian case 103 4.2 Italy as a new immigration country and the domestic debate on migration 113 4.3 Trafficking, prostitution, slavery: the Italian law context 122 4.3.1 Article 18: technicalities, practicalities and the European context 127 4.4 Trafficking, prostitution, slavery and Article 18: the cultural context 137 Conclusions 145 Chapter 5 Victim Protection in Italy: theory and practice 148 5.1 Victim protection in Italy 149 5.2 Victim protection in the three research sites: Catania 173 5.3 Lecce 178 5.4 Rome 182 Conclusions 187 Chapter 6 Slavery as Metaphor: research findings 191 6.1 Stories of violence and coercion in definitions of ‘trafficking’ and ‘slavery’ 194 6.2 Construction of marginalities and victims 204 6 6.3 Debt, stigma and symbolic representations of poverty 211 6.4 Life stories from interviews with sex workers and VoTs 220 6.5 Migrant women’s accounts of indebtedness 225 6.6 Travel and coercion 229 6.7 Victims, citizenship and markets 235 Conclusions 244 Chapter 7 Article 18, Abolitionism(s), Feminism(s): a historical perspective 248 7.1 Abolitionism and Imperial Feminism: a history repeating itself 249 7.2 Women and the limits of freedom: Italian feminism 259 7.3 Women’s rights and protection programmes 265 7.4 Women’s rights and the return to domesticity 270 Conclusions 284 Chapter 8 From Slavery to Freedom or From ‘Slave’ to ‘Freed’? 286 8.1 Slavery, prostitution, agency and the ‘domestic’ question 288 8.2 From slavery to freedom or from ‘slave’ to ‘freed’? 292 Bibliography 297 7 List of Tables Table 1: Key actors interviewed and research sites 38 Table 2: Name and type of organisation/institution, people interviewed, city, and name of projects 39 Table 3: Characteristics of sex workers (SW) 44 Table 4: Characteristics of women who accessed protection programmes (VoT) 45 Table 5: Representation of actions and rhetoric on prostitution in Italy 139 Table 6: Number of victims of trafficking accompanied to services, introduced in projects, in training, and obtaining work permits (March 2000 – March/April 2005) 153 Table 7: Number of residence permits for social protection requested and issued from 1999 to March/April 2005 154 Table 8: Victims in criminal proceedings brought for human trafficking for the purpose of exploitation. Absolute values and percentages (June 1996 – June 2001) 157 Table 9: Countries of origin of women and minors who accessed social protection programmes (March 2000 – February 2001) 158 List of Figures Figure 1: Diagram of continuums slavery/free labour, belonging/exclusion 58 Figure 2: Regional distribution of projects for social protection – Art. 18 D.lgs 286/98 (total projects n. 448 – period 2000-2006) 152 Figure 3: Nationality of women in social protection programmes (March 2001– March/April 2002) (Total 1,836) 159 Figure 4: Distribution of percentages of nationality of origin of women in social protection programmes (2000-2004) 161 Figure 5: Total distribution of telephone calls to the national anti-trafficking helpline for typologies of ‘calls’ (July 2000-March 2006) 162 Figure 6: Typology of lodging in social protection programmes 165 Figure 7: Distribution of percentages of work typologies accessed by women in social protection programmes (2000-2004) 168 Figure 8: Definition of ‘modern slavery’ by key actors 196 Figure 9: Definition of ‘sexual slavery’ by key actors 198 Figure 10: Definition of ‘trafficking in persons’ by key actors 201 Figure 11: Movements of VoTs within the continuums Slavery/Freedom, Belonging/Exclusion 294 Appendix 1: Presentation of research and interview schedule for key actors 314 Appendix 2: Questionnaire for key actors 317 Appendix 3: interview schedule for migrant women sex workers and victims of trafficking 321 8 Chapter 1 Introduction In academia, among governments, in the media, and in non-governmental organisations (NGO) activities, nationally and internationally, recent decades have witnessed a revival of interest in the problem of slavery. New challenges have emerged from the opening of previously separated national borders, and from the concomitant search for work opportunities and a better life by those people who had for many years endured oppressive political systems, and who had experienced economic distress after the collapse of totalitarian regimes.
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