CHILD LABOR SUPPLY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING RISK An Empirical Analysis of Trafficking Survivors in the Mekong Delta

Transcription

1 CHILD LABOR SUPPLY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING RISK An Empirical Analysis of Trafficking Survivors in the Mekong Delta Lien H Tran* Diep Vuong** Phuong Thao Le*** * Tran is a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Vietnamese Studies at Temple U. and an economist at the U. S. Federal Trade Commission. The views expressed here are my own. ** Vuong is President and Co-Founder of Pacific Links Foundation. *** Le is Assistant Professor, School of Public Health, New York U.

2 Why should we be concerned? Presence of very young female children in the commercial sex trade in Southeast Asia in the last two decades raises concerns These trade networks can destabilize local communities, reduce educational opportunities and worsen labor market outcomes for female children. 2

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4 Identifying victims Estimating the size of this population is fraught with difficulty because of identification issues: A person is considered to be a trafficked victim when there is an element of force, fraud, or coercion into situations that do not fit the original description or promise (United Nations, 2000). An alternative view is that certain children and young women made the choice to work in the sex trade, and they would lose income if prohibited from working. 4

5 Why concern with age at time of being trafficking? Abuse of young children is likely to cause long-lasting trauma and permanent reduction in life long earning capability that could have been obtained through accumulation of human capital through education. 5

6 The data ADAPT program Data are collected on returnees at the point of service at locations where Pacific Links operates shelters under the ADAPT program: Long Xuyen at the border of Vietnam and Kampuchea Lao Cai at the border of Vietnam with China 6

7 Research question To better understand why certain trafficked victims were so young at the time of being trafficked, we estimate a statistical relationship between age at time of being trafficked and own sociodemographic characteristics as well as characteristics of parents 7

8 Summary statistics for returnees in the Mekong Delta Variable. Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max Age_at_time_trafficked Est Year_trafficked Own_edu Orphan Employ_search

9 Summary statistics for returnees in the Mekong Delta (cont d) Variable Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max Own_age Father_age Mother_age Mother_age_yr_trafficked Father_age_yr_trafficked

10 Model 1 Number of obs = Source SS df MS F( 8, 68) = Model Prob > F = Residual R-squared = Total Adj R- squared = Root MSE = Age_at_time_beingtrafficked Coef. Std. Err. t P> t [95% Conf. Interval] Own_age Own_edu Norphan_father_age Father_edu Norphan_mother_age Mother_edu Orphan Employ_search Constant

11 Model 2 Number of obs = 77 Source SS df MS F( 8, 68) = Model Prob > F = Residual R-squared = Total Adj R-squared = Root MSE = Age_at_time_beingtrafficked Coef. Std. Err. t P> t [95% Conf. Interval] Own_age Own_edu Father_yr_trafficked _non orphan Father_edu Mother_yr_trafficked _non orphan Mother_edu Orphan Employ_search Constant

12 Main findings Father s educational attainment does not have an effect, but mother s educational attainment has a positive and significant effect on age of being trafficked suggesting that higher mother s educational attainnment delays the age of child being trafficked The search for employment coefficient is negative and statistically significant, suggesting that searching for employment is a a significant factor in the trafficking of younger children in search of employment 12

13 Caveats Small sample Data collected at point of service, so there is a possibility of sample bias 13

14 Still.. Preliminary results suggest: Importance of mother s educational attainment for children outcomes Household labor supply decisions play an important role in exposing children to trafficking risk in rural labor markets 14

15 Reference United Nations. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish the Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (2000). 15