Responding to Human Trafficking is the first book to critically examine responses to the growing issue of human trafficking in Canada. Julie Kaye challenges the separation of trafficking debates into international versus domestic emphases and explores the tangled ways in which anti-trafficking policies reflect and reinforce the settler-colonial nation-building project of Canada. In doing so, Kaye reveals how some anti-trafficking measures create additional harms for the individuals they are trying to protect, particularly migrant and Indigenous women. The author’s critical examination draws upon theories of post- and settler-colonialism, Indigenous feminist thought, and fifty-six interviews with people in counter-trafficking employment across Western Canada.

Responding to Human Trafficking provides a new framework for critical analyses of anti-trafficking and other rights-based and anti-violence interventions. Kaye disrupts measures that contribute to the insecurity experienced by trafficked women and individuals affected by anti-trafficking responses by pointing to anti-colonial organizing and the possibilities of reciprocity in relationships of care.

Julie Kaye is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Saskatchewan.

Julie Kaye's profile page

‘Julie Kaye’s excellent and much needed intervention into contemporary trafficking debates is a must read for scholars…Responding to Human Trafficking is a profound contribution to both public and policy debates on the topic.’

Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books, January 2018

‘Kay’s work is a significant addition to the academic literature on anti-trafficking efforts in Canada and should be included in academic library collections.’

Canadian Law Library Review vol 43:01:2018