This research project is led by Eric Kasper of the cities cluster and funded by Winrock and USAID.
Phase one
What constitutes successful reintegration for survivors of trafficking in persons (TIP) and what can various stakeholders do to increase the likelihood of successful reintegration?
Phase one will address the research question: “What constitutes successful reintegration for survivors of trafficking in persons (TIP) and what can various stakeholders do to increase the likelihood of successful reintegration?”. Like the concept of wellbeing, “success” in reintegration has both objective and subjective components. It incorporates medicalised factors such as mental health and complex trauma. It also includes general elements of what constitutes a “good life”, including meaningful connections to friends, family, and community. The research intends to allow the complexities to come to the fore. It draws upon the experiences of local survivors of trafficking in persons (TIP). It will also engage with the communities in which they are reintegrating. The intention is to explore and express their embedded understandings of what is important and what works.
This project sits principally within the broader body of work of USAID’s Asia Counter Trafficking in Persons program (USAID Asia CTIP).
The research itself will use a combination of desk-based research and innovative participatory field research methods, in Bangladesh and Cambodia. Short films, photography and a report are the expected outputs from this phase.
Phase two
Understanding experiences of the “victim identification” process for survivors of human trafficking
This phase of the project responds to the recognition that, in spite of widespread commitment by governments and international organisations to fighting trafficking in persons, victims of trafficking still fall through the cracks. Further, there is a significant gap in understanding about how survivors themselves typically experience the process of coming forward, identifying themselves as a victim, and taking action to access their entitlements. Nor is much known about how frontline officials or NGO workers tasked with identifying victims typically experience the identification process.
This phase of research addresses this gap in knowledge by exploring those periods of transition before and after “victim identification” in life history-style interviews with survivors of trafficking, frontline officials and NGO workers, and other key informants deeply familiar with the policies and practices around counter-trafficking.
The research is taking place with research teams in Cambodia, Bangladesh, with additional remote inquiries in Taiwan. It is designed to compare challenges and opportunities for better “victim identification” across origin and destination countries as well as between survivors and the formal counter-trafficking system.
Key contacts
