Read the article and watch the Kim’s then answer the following questions.The article and the films provide a number of case studies which you should draw upon to answer the prompt.
(1) How does globalization, poverty and trans-border migration create the opportunity for a 21st century version of slavery? Why does migration represent a form of vulnerability for domestic workers? (Draw on examples from the films and readings)
(2) What does human servitude look like in Niger? How does it differ from other examples you encountered in this Unit? (For example, house slavery in France, debt bondage in India, child soldiers, children in the sex industry in Cambodia, sex trafficking in Moldova.)
(3) Commodification of individuals: Given that people can be bought and sold as objects in a labor market or as sexually trafficked commodities, do you think that historical ideas of ownership and property should be used as a legal criteria for defining modern slavery? What other features of slavery might you identify as key features of slavery given the case studies and articles you have read? You may wish to reflect (as Orlando Patterson does) on how professional athletes are bought and sold as objects, and yet are not slaves. Does “ownership” constitute a key feature of slavery?
VIDEOS:
Slavery: Thought it no longer existed? (1hr 48min)

People In Niger Are Still Born Into Slavery (19min)