Beyond Impoverishment? A Socio-Ecological Analysis of the Drivers of Child Trafficking and Migration Between Two Fishing Communities

Author: Koomson, Bernard; Adusei, Kwame; Abdulai, Dawuda; Yeboah, Eric Henry & Manful, Esmeranda

Abstract: Popular discourses on the drivers of child trafficking and migration are dominated by notions of household poverty and economic hardship. While these are key drivers of trafficking and migration in sub-Saharan Africa, the taken-for-granted status of these drivers within anti-trafficking discourse and intervention often obscures and/or blurs diverse contextual factors that inform practices conceptualized as trafficking in children. Drawing on a qualitative case study with 54 study participants in two fishing communities in Ghana, we explored the impoverished representation of child trafficking and migration within socio-ecological theory. Our findings reveal the contextual complexities of how systemic drivers (parental separation, familial and generational ties, poverty and high birth rates) interact to propel the trafficking of children and/or migration for work between two fishing communities. Consequently, we argue that it is important to situate popular discourses on the drivers of child trafficking and migration within the socio-ecological context of children’s daily lives.

Keywords: child trafficking/migration, drivers, fishing, poverty, socio-ecological theory, source and destination communities