US Demand for Slave Labor

Our prosperity here in the US is not without a cost. Unfortunately, part of that cost is often a human one. Slavery was an important part of the US economy for a long time until industrialization began to take effect. However, heavy industry did not spread throughout the whole of the Union. We became divided geographically based on economic activity. The south remained reliant on slave labor for agriculture, which was its main industry.

Eventually this divide tore the Union apart and we fought a war to determine what system would dominate. The slave holding states lost and slavery was officially legally ended in the US. It continued illegally for quite some time after in the form of chain gangs and other forced labor crews operating under the guise of legal punishment for criminal activity. However, the people accused of such activity were universally of African decent, and were forced into servitude for crimes as minor as being unemployed. Fortunately, this too was ended. It was however not the end of slavery in the United States. 



According to the US State Department, approximately 50,000 people are trafficked into the US for forced labor or prostitution every year. There are no reliable estimates as to how many slaves are currently in the US. It is surprisingly hard to track something that goes on all around us. In the interests of improving the chances of tracking it, we will examine the areas in which there is a demand for slave labor.

Prostitution
In my home town of San Diego California, the average age of a prostitute is 13. Considering that the human trafficking laws currently state that any minor engaging in commercial sex work cannot consent to it and is thus a trafficking victim, there are a lot of victims. Many are Mexican citizens who were lured, bought, or outright kidnapped from poor communities in Mexico or other Latin American countries.

In the San Francisco Bay area where I currently reside, many prostitutes are citizens of East Asian countries, including Vietnam, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, and China. There are also a considerable number of women and girls from the former Soviet block countries, as well as many from Latin America. Many come for the money. In some cases it pays well. In many cases, they have their passports taken away and are forced to repay the transport cost to the US, in addition to living expenses once here. Threats are made against their families in their home countries to deter them from attempting to escape. Given that the organized crime groups that bring them here operate in their home countries, these threats are not empty.

In areas such as New York and Oakland, where there are large populations of lower middle class and poor people, criminal groups don't have to go so far to recruit. Domestic trafficking is now discussed as a major issue, where before prostitutes, even underage ones, were considered criminals.



I can not answer the question as to why there is a demand for forced sex in the US. The demand exists globally. However, it is critical to recognize that demand is there and is bringing thousands of women, children and even men into the country or from poor neighborhoods every year. This is not the only source of demand.


Forced labor
Illegal immigration has been a major political and social issue in the US for the last several decades. Something that is not often considered is how many of those immigrants once here are actually being paid for their work. Agricultural workers here in the US face the same issues of having their passports taken away and being forced to pay transit expenses once here as forced prostitutes. Unfortunately, because of the construct of illegal immigrants being criminals, there has been little research as to how many of them are in fact victims of criminals.



The demand for forced labor is somewhat easier for me to explain than the one for forced sex. It provides a cheap work force, which means we can keep buying relatively inexpensive produce at the local super market.

We fought a war over slavery. Today it exists in every state and every major urban center in the US. As long as we demand it, the supply will provide. How can we shift our demand to deny greater supply? How can we attack the root causes and dry the supply up?