‘IT’S EASIER IF WE STOP THEM MOVING’ A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ANTI- CHILD TRAFFICKING DISCOURSE, POLICY AND PRACTICE – THE CASE OF SOUTHERN BENIN Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies by Neil Howard DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, ST ANTONY’S COLLEGE & ST HILDA’S COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD DECEMBER 2012 2 3 DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP Name (in capitals): NEIL HOWARD Candidate Number: 9941 Supervisors of thesis: BRIDGET ANDERSON and JO BOYDEN College (in capitals): ST ANTONY’S COLLEGE and ST HILDA’S COLLEGE Title of thesis (in capitals): ‘IT’S EASIER IF WE STOP THEM MOVING: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ANTI- CHILD TRAFFICKING DISCOURSE, POLICY AND PRACTICE – THE CASE OF SOUTHERN BENIN’ Word Count: 100,086 Please mark to confirm the following: I am aware of the University’s disciplinary regulations concerning conduct ! in examinations and, in particular, of the regulations on plagiarism. The thesis I am submitting is entirely my own work except where otherwise ! indicated. It has not been submitted, either wholly or substantially, for another Honour ! School or degree of this University, or for a degree at any other institution. I have clearly signalled the presence of quoted or paraphrased material and ! referenced all sources. I have acknowledged appropriately any assistance I have received in addition ! to that provided by my supervisor. I have not sought assistance from any professional agency. ! I have not repeated any material from other pieces of work that I have ! previously submitted for assessment for this degree, except where permitted. I agree to retain an electronic version of the work and to make it available ! on request from the Chair of Examiners should this be required in order to check for plagiarism. Candidate’s signature: Date: 11/03/13 4 5 ABSTRACT This thesis offers a critical assessment of anti- child trafficking discourse, policy and practice, using a case study of the situation in Southern Benin. It seeks to achieve two main goals. First, to transcend the reductiveness of the dominant paradigm around child trafficking, including dominant representations of it and prevailing policy approaches to dealing with it. Second, to complicate the simplistic nature of much of the academic literature that explains the existence and persistence of this dominant paradigm. Based on 14 months of multi-sited fieldwork, the thesis demonstrates, first, that the institutional narrative of ‘child trafficking’ misrepresents what would be better understood as adolescent labour migration in Benin, and second, that mainstream policy approaches to tackling this fail to account for the socio- cultural or political-economic conditions that underpin it. The thesis suggests that this can be interpreted as a result of the power of three framing orders of discourse – ‘Apollonian Childhood’, Neoliberalism and that of the Westphalian State – which structure both what ‘trafficking’ can mean and what can be done about it. The thesis suggests that the material and power structures of the anti-trafficking discourse- and policy-making field are such that, even where individuals within it reject both the dominant paradigm and its (and the field’s) framing orders of discourse, little space exists for them to construct meaningful alternatives. The result is a degree of formal and representational stability, hiding practical hybridity. The conclusion is offered that, while anti-trafficking discourse is presumed to be accurate and while anti- trafficking policy is justified in terms of its contribution to ‘beneficiaries’, the 6 principle achievement of both is the depoliticised reproduction of the institutions, orders of discourse and political-economic context within which they are constructed. 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Abbreviations and Terms Used.......................................................................15 List of Boxes, Figures, Images and Maps...................................................................19 Acknowledgements.....................................................................................................21 INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................25 Thesis Overview................................................................................................30 CHAPTER 1: SETTING THE SCENE: CHILD TRAFFICKING AND ITS DISCONTENTS.........................................................................................................38 Introduction.......................................................................................................38 Child Trafficking: The Emergence of a Dominant Paradigm..............................39 Emergence................................................................................................39 Discourse.................................................................................................41 International Legal Frameworks and Policies.........................................47 Problems with the Dominant Paradigm.............................................................60 The Critical Literature and Its Drawbacks.........................................................67 The Whys and Wherefores: Critical Explanations for the Paradigmatic Status Quo................................................................................................67 - Ignorance and Inertia...................................................................67 - The Power of Received Ideas........................................................70 - Power at Play................................................................................71 8 • State Power and Political Capital........................................71 • Economic Self-Interest.........................................................73 Problems with Critical Explanations........................................................75 Benin as a Case Study........................................................................................78 History and Overview..............................................................................79 The Emergence of Child Trafficking.........................................................82 Why is Benin a Useful Case Study?..........................................................84 - Questions of Political Economy....................................................85 • ‘Aid’ and the State................................................................85 • Cotton...................................................................................87 - Social Families..............................................................................91 - Histories of Mobility.....................................................................96 - Gaps in the Critical Literature......................................................98 Conclusion.........................................................................................................99 CHAPTER 2: A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: TOWARDS MORE NUANCED UNDERSTANDINGS.........................................................................101 Introduction.....................................................................................................101 Beyond Structure and Agency.........................................................................102 Discourse and Discourse Analysis.........................................................103 - Top-Down Agenda-Setting..........................................................110 - Self-Silencing, Resistance and Playing the Game........................111 9 - The Symbolic-Economic Capital Trade-Off and the Politics of Representation...............................................................................113 ‘Apollonian’ Childhood...................................................................................115 The Development of the ‘Universal’ Child.............................................116 Universal, Apollonian Childhood and Related Policies..........................121 - Defining Factors.........................................................................121 • Age......................................................................................121 • Vulnerability.......................................................................122 • Children as Non-Agents.....................................................123 • School and the Safe Family Home......................................124 • Non-Economic Childhood..................................................124 - Policy Consequences...................................................................125 • Family Building..................................................................125 • Schooling............................................................................126 • Preventive Impositions.......................................................127 • A-Political, Individualised Interventions............................129 The Westphalian State.....................................................................................131 The Emergence and Rise of the Westphalian Order..............................132 The Place of Legitimacy.........................................................................136 The Role of International Organisations................................................141 Certain Consequences of the Westphalian Order...................................145 Neoliberalism and its Governmentality...........................................................148