Talet om trafficking -? en hegemonisk strävan med kamp om betydelser
En analys av europeiska handlingsplaner mot trafficking med människor
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 andagreements on trafficking in human beings and for sexual exploitation have been made bythe European Union and United Nations amongst others, which have been signed andratified by the EU countries in Action Plans. In this essay, five national Actions Plans, fromAustria, Great Britain, Poland, Spain and Sweden between 2007 and 2009, have beencompared in order to see similarities and differences in how the phenomenon of traffickingis done through language. Based on Discourse theory and focus on discursive struggles, theresult 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 framedas a problem of the nation state and the domestic labour market. It is also illustrated howdifferent meanings of prostitution make the trafficking discourse antagonistic and contested.Finally, the essay discusses the trafficking discourse in relation to EU strivings towardsharmonisation and power imbalances of migration and economy in Europe.