Power Inequalities: Old and New Kind of Slavery in Cultural Cages

"Legitimacy" appears to be a central concept in much of the analysis surrounding migration phenomena, particularly in relation to labour and market dynamics. The relative utility of employment in the labour market remains a bias that legitimizes the journey more than the motivations that define migrants as economic migrants, asylum seekers and victims of trafficking. The migratory project is a complex phenomenon and often the categories used in literature prove too rigid to understand that there can be unexpected overlaps between trafficking and smuggling, work and slavery. Bales (2012) asserts that in ancient times slaves were valuable commodities as they were not easily obtained. If it is true that in the last two centuries, the potential availability of slaves has increased, with the maximization of profits the predatory capitalism took postmodern society back into a past where huge amount of non-valuable slavery is necessary. Furthermore human trafficking and new kind of slavery are not a gender-neutral issue. Women face heightened risks due to their social and economic status within society for unequal power dynamics between genders, patriarchal values and the objectification of women's bodies and sexuality, the feminization of poverty and the normalization of violence against women. Very often, migrants are aware of their exploitation and victimization, but they endure it because it represents the "lesser evil" even in case they have to face a double alienation as migrants in an unknown country and slave with no value (Cristaldi 2015).

The aim of this contribution is to investigate, including through excerpts from interviews with women who were victims of smuggling-trafficking, the process of victimization and marginalization they experience, which betrays their expectation of achieving a better balance of power between genders in a new country.