Slavery is bad for business: analyzing the impact of slavery on national economies

Public discourse on human trafficking and modern-day slavery is reaching a tipping point -- it is coming to be understood as a global problem with economic and policy implications far beyond simple reports of cross-border human trafficking. A decade ago most educated citizens considered slavery a phenomenon of the past, relegated to history textbooks. Today a strong narrative has reached global proportions: activists, epistemic communities, NGOs, IGOs, and governments are acknowledging the scope and extent of slavery in the twenty-first century. One need only point to Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wu Dunn’s bestseller Half the Sky, President Barack Obama’s 2012 speech at the Clinton Global Intiative, or the awareness that celebrities such as Mira Sorvino and Jada Pinkett Smith are raising about the subject to illustrate how far the antislavery movement has progressed.1 Yet despite such civic mindedness, surprisingly little data and empirically driven research exist on slavery today. Although some headway has been made in estimating its prevalence -- most notably in the form of contributions by Kevin Bales and by the International Labor Organization (ILO) -- apart from a rough estimate of how many slaves exist in the world today (21 to 27 million), scholars and policy makers know little about the risk factors -- let alone the business impact -- that contemporary slavery has on the global community.2 Indeed, most extant research, although useful, is qualitative, not allowing for statistical models.3 To what extent is slavery empirically bad for business? For whom is the business of slavery profitable, and for whom is it economically burdensome

Slavery is bad for business: analyzing the impact of slavery on national economies

Public discourse on human trafficking and modern-day slavery is reaching a tipping point -- it is coming to be understood as a global problem with economic and policy implications far beyond simple reports of cross-border human trafficking. A decade ago most educated citizens considered slavery a phenomenon of the past, relegated to history textbooks. Today a strong narrative has reached global proportions: activists, epistemic communities, NGOs, IGOs, and governments are acknowledging the scope and extent of slavery in the twenty-first century. One need only point to Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wu Dunn’s bestseller Half the Sky, President Barack Obama’s 2012 speech at the Clinton Global Intiative, or the awareness that celebrities such as Mira Sorvino and Jada Pinkett Smith are raising about the subject to illustrate how far the antislavery movement has progressed.1 Yet despite such civic mindedness, surprisingly little data and empirically driven research exist on slavery today. Although some headway has been made in estimating its prevalence -- most notably in the form of contributions by Kevin Bales and by the International Labor Organization (ILO) -- apart from a rough estimate of how many slaves exist in the world today (21 to 27 million), scholars and policy makers know little about the risk factors -- let alone the business impact -- that contemporary slavery has on the global community.2 Indeed, most extant research, although useful, is qualitative, not allowing for statistical models.3 To what extent is slavery empirically bad for business? For whom is the business of slavery profitable, and for whom is it economically burdensome

Applying Community-based Learning in Teaching and Researching Contemporary Slavery

Over the past several years, student demand for courses, research opportunities, and internships in the realm of human rights and modern-day slavery has reached a tipping point, for several reasons. First, social media have made contemporary slavery a familiar issue. MTV’s Exit Campaign (http://mtvexit.org), for instance, has informed at least 20 million people about the subject since the campaign’s launch in 2004. Second, Hollywood has taken notice. With films like 2009’s Taken, starring Liam Neeson as a father who single-handedly (even if unrealistically) rescues his daughter from the clutches of sex traffickers in Europe, students know trafficking is a moral evil that should be fought. Third, policymakers have transcended partisan politics and embraced legislation to fight modern-day slavery. In February 2013, for instance, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously in support of an amendment to the Violence Against Women Act to help child victims of sex trafficking. President Obama gave a major speech on modern-day slavery in 2012 (http://www.whitehouse.gov/ endtrafficking). Accordingly, a growing number of incoming college freshmen not only want to major (or concentrate) in the study of human rights, but also want to spend part of their careers tackling human-rights abuses, including contemporary slavery. In the past two years, I have compiled a teaching and research portfolio on modern-day slavery using community-based learning. Here I highlight some lessons learned and suggest next steps to deepen this teaching and research agenda, particularly for institutions such as mine, a small liberal arts college in the American South. This is especially appropriate given the recent 150th anniversary of President Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation

Unraveling North Korea’s Preferences and Managing its Nuclear Threat

Chief among US national security concerns is the North Korean nuclear threat. Led by its reclusive, enigmatic leader, Kim Jong Il, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) is one of the last bastions of communism, representing a strategic and ideological challenge for the United States in the post-9/11 era. So great is the perceived threat of the DPRK, that in his 2002 State of the Union address, President Bush proclaimed, “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger.” Moreover, President Bush argued it is in within the rights of the United States to strike first against such threats, lest the nation be caught off-guard again and suffer the harrowing consequences of another September 11. Although North Korea has yet to test a nuclear weapon, most security experts agree Pyongyang has at least enough fissile material and the technical expertise to construct a handful of crude nuclear bombs. Moreover, using its long-range, intercontinental Taepodong-2 missile, the DPRK could launch an attack against South Korea, Japan, or even the United States (e.g., Hawaii, Alaska, and San Francisco). Thus, with one well-placed strike, North Korea could devastate a major American city. Given the isolated and mysterious nature of Kim Jong Il, and the probability that the DPRK has nuclear weapons, two key questions arise for debate: (1) How can the United States best understand the behavior and preferences of the DPRK? (2) What policy options should Washington consider in dealing with the North Korean nuclear threat

Using Big Data and Quantitative Methods to Estimate and Fight Modern Day Slavery

Given the hidden, criminal nature of contemporary slavery, empirically estimating the proportion of the population enslaved at the national and global level is a challenge. At the same time, little is understood about what happens to the lives of the survivors of slavery once they are free. I discuss some data collection methods from two nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) I have worked with that shed light on these issues. The first NGO, the Walk Free Foundation, estimates that there are about 30 million enslaved in the world today. The second NGO, Free the Slaves, employs a longitudinal analysis to chronicle the lives of survivors. The acquisition and dissemination of such information is crucial because policymakers and donors sometimes require hard data before committing time, political will, and resources to the cause

Neither Slavery nor Involuntary Servitude

The sex trade grabs headlines, but modern-day slavery takes many forms across the globe, spreading like a cancer in the 21st century. Scholars estimate that there are as many as 27 million slaves today; the majority are not in forced prostitution, but instead in other heinous forms of exploitation (though rape and/or other forms of torture are often tools of coercion). Slavery permeates northern India, where children, to help pay off their family\u27s exorbitantly high debts to corrupt local businessmen, hunch over in the dark for hours at a stretch as they weave carpets on looms until their small, delicate fingers bleed. Slavery is embedded in Nepal, where children and families in debt bondage spend years making bricks by hand, never making enough money to pay off their debts. Slavery is also rooted in Brazil, where poor farmers are lured to remote forests and forced to work m hot kilns to produce charcoal for the production of pig iron, which goes into the steel of the cars we drive and the appliances in our kitchens. Slavery is found in West Africa, where the cocoa industry obtains about half of Its world crop, in part from child labor, for the chocolate we enjoy and the cosmetics we use. Contemporary slavery touches us all

Anti-Americanism and the Rise of World Opinion

In recent years, the US has seen its public popularity ratings around the world plummet under the presidency of George W. Bush, and subsequently soar upon the election of Barack Obama. The issue of anti-Americanism has received considerable attention from policy-makers, pundits and scholars alike. It is perhaps surprising then that systematic empirical studies of its consequences are still few and far between. Drawing from a wealth of research data, interviews and surveys of social media, this book directly examines pro- and anti-American views and asks what we can learn about the nature and impact of world opinion. By treating anti-Americanism as a case study of public opinion at work, Professor Datta reveals how we can better understand the relationship between global citizens and their political leaders, and concludes that anti-Americanism does in fact substantially impact US security, as well as its economic and political interests.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1165/thumbnail.jp

Slavery is Bad for Business: Analyzing the Impact of Slavery on National Economies

This article, using a novel dataset, demonstrates that slavery is empirically bad for business. Building upon the work of Robert Smith, the authors analysis examines the relationship between the prevalence of slavery in a country (in terms of the proportion of the population enslaved) and several economic measures (the United Nations Human Development Index, growth domestic product in terms of purchasing power parity, access to financial services, and the Gini coefficient). In each instance, controlling for alternative explanations, greater levels of slavery are associated with a decline in economic growth and human development. The findings imply that beyond the morality of the issue, slavery is objectively harmful for total economic output and social development. This article begins with a discussion of how slavery is profitable for slaveholders and then proceeds with a discussion of how it undermines social and economic output at the macro level

Encompass Southeast Asia: A Unique Experiential Learning Opportunity through the University of Richmond

The Office of International Education (OIE) at the University of Richmond (UR) developed Encompass Southeast Asia (Encompass SEA) as part of a pilot program to engage students who have not historically participated in study abroad opportunities at UR and its partner institutions. Participants included students from challenging socioeconomic backgrounds, nontraditional students, students of color, athletes, males, and students with limited travel experience. Historically, such cohorts have not participated in semester-long study abroad programs due to the prohibitive costs, time commitments required, and social stigmas. The Encompass program, fully funded by a donor, included all travel expenses for student and faculty participants. Encompass SEA developed from discussions between the two faculty member authors and the dean of OIE, Dr. Martha Merritt, with several goals: (1) build more connections between UR and partner organizations in Asia; (2) focus these connections based on the prior research expertise of both authors in the realm of anti-human trafficking studies; (3) provide students an immersive cultural experience that went beyond touristic experiences in Southeast Asia and instead illuminated the operational dynamics of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in their counter-trafficking work; and (4) bolster research collaboration opportunities and outreach between UR and nonprofits, other organizations, and educational institutions in Thailand and Cambodia. The faculty leaders for Encompass SEA also envisioned growing a cohort of faculty across UR with diverse interests in Asia and a collective desire to deepen connections between the university and Asian institutions. The faculty leaders of the trip created an itinerary that combined visits with nonprofits in Thailand and Cambodia, engaging with the children and youth served by these nonprofits, shopping in local markets and cooking Thai dishes at the home of local Thai colleagues, and visiting key historical and cultural sites in both countries

The Global Slavery Index

The Global Slavery Index report is published by the Walk Free Foundation (“Walk Free”). Walk Free is committed to ending all forms of modern slavery in this generation. Modern slavery includes slavery, slavery-like practices (such as debt bondage, forced marriage and sale or exploitation of children), human trafficking and forced labour, and other practices described in key international treaties, voluntarily ratified by nearly every country in the world. Walk Free’s strategy includes mobilising a global activist movement, generating the highest quality research, enlisting business, and raising unprecedented levels of capital to drive change in those countries and industries bearing the greatest responsibility for all forms of modern slavery today. Walk Free was founded by Andrew and Nicola Forrest, global philanthropists. More information on Walk Free can be found at www.walkfreefoundation.org. Information is a critical driver of change. Over time, the Global Slavery Index report will fill gaps in information about the size and nature of the problem, risk factors, and the effectiveness of responses. The intention is to inform and empower civil society groups working on this issue, and to assist governments to strengthen their efforts to eliminate all forms of modern slavery