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Northern In-HospitalityNAFTA’s Effect on Sex Trafficking in the AmericasBy Colleen Durfee, Junior, Department of Geography; Department of Spanish and PortugueseRelations between the United States andLatin America affect every aspect of LatinAmerican and United States citizens’ lives, afact enhanced by the increasing migrationof peoples and the expansion of neo-liberalmarkets between these countries. Arguably,past and present relationships betweenLatin America and the United States, specificallywith trade agreements that link thetwo regions, have been an axis of leverageto exercise political and economic control,and may be connected to the sex tradeof women and children throughout theUnited States. So how might foreign policytoward Latin America change such thatpeople may survive in their countries oforigin without being pushed or pulled out?How can the economic, social, and politicalinequalities of Latino Americans at homebe mitigated so as to diminish the risks ofimmigration to the United States?These loaded questions have no clearanswer, but the sex-trafficking industry isthe most common and fastest growing formof slavery in the world today. The U.S. CIAestimates that about 50,000 people are traffickedinto the United States annually andof those, 15,000 are Latin American womenand children. An answer to these questionsis pertinent to stopping inhumane treatmentof these women and children. Theaverage age of a sex-slave in the world is12 to 14 years old. They are abused androbbed of the security and intimacy that wehold dear. Sex trafficking is a manipulativeprocess that preys on the young, especiallywomen and girls, and is unfortunately theonly way for some to migrate from one areato another. The problems Latin Americansface when trying to immigrate to the UnitedStates increases illegal immigration throughunregulated, exploitative, and dangerousmeans and strengthens the power andinfluence of the sex-trafficking industry.This informal economy through humantrafficking is partially perpetuated throughthe United States’ employment of neo-liberalpolicies regarding trade. These policiesintend to “promote economic growth byspurring competition in domestic marketsand promoting investment from bothdomestic and foreign sources” say GaryClyde Hufbauer and Jeffrey J. Schott intheir article, “NAFTA Revisited:Achievements and Challenges.”However, the subsequenteffects of NAFTA have inducedmass migration to small bordertowns in northern Mexico,called maquiladoras. Thesetowns are pressured to expandto contain large populations,creating an environment ofresource scarcity that drives upthe cost of living. Many ruralfamilies once grew their ownfood but the agri-businesspropelled by NAFTA made itimpossible for them to supportthemselves or sell their productbecause the U.S. crop is muchcheaper. As the Mexican agriculturaleconomy is hollowed out, moreand more Mexicans move across the borderundocumented. This is just one example ofhow a family in Mexico finds it worth the riskof migrating to the United States to supporttheir family.The workers in these border factories setup by free trade agreements are subject tocontaminated water, environmental degradation,lead poisoning, gas poisoning, andmore. These hazards lead to early death,infertility, and cancer. The transnationalcorporations will outlast any legal appealfor damage compensation or severancepay after they outsource to East Asian areas,leaving the Mexican populations withtheir hands bound and no course of actiontoward justice or equality. All of thesefactors lead to the push and pull effect thatcontributes to dangerous labor migrationacross a highly militarized border.The defense budget for border regulationand maintenance has ceased to beofficially reported for after 2002 when itreached 2.1 billion per year. However, theestimated cost now surpasses 10 billionper year, post-2010. Fewer people haveattempted crossing the border due to thehigher risk involved in crossing. The effectof a highly militarized border is to forcecrossing to occur through mountains ordeserts where death from extreme weatherand temperature is high. Many scholarsargue that this kind of border has theopposite desired effect on immigration tothe United States because once immigrantsenter; they do not want to leave. Previouslywith more fluid borders there were lessdeaths and less permanent residents inUnited States territory resulting fromborder crossings to and form Mexico andthe United States.There are both known and unknowncontributors to the proliferation of thedangers in immigration and exposure tohuman trafficking in the United States. TheUS holds much of the responsibility of theincreased violence resulting from foreignpolicy and free trade agreements with itsneighbors to the South. The effects of neoliberalismon the countries that bare thebrunt of the capitalist forces result in constantlycompeting corporate and privateforces for lower prices and higher profits.It takes no effort to see why maquiladoreshave thrived and caused suffering in thewake of consumer practices. America hasmade a mess by marginalizing billionsof people through NAFTA based on theneed to perpetuate an economic, capitalhegemony. Unfortunately, an entire cultureof exploitation has manifested in thehuman trafficking, slavery, and the agriculturaland industrial sectors of the US’ssouthern and Mexico’s northern states.For Colleen Durfee’s full essay with citationsvisit us on line: quepasa.osu.edu.www.quepasa.osu.edu Spring Semester 2013 19