Identification work: Ambivalence, qualms and resistance in social workers’ identification of trafficking victims

Author: Brunovskis, Anette

Abstract: Social workers play a pivotal part in the implementation of human trafficking policies, not least in identification of victims. When assessing who is and who is not a trafficking victim, boundaries are drawn between different groups of people and the human trafficking definition is operationalised. However, the actual practice of trafficking identification has not been sufficiently explored. Based on 12 qualitative interviews with social workers in Norway and taking an institutional ethnographic approach, I argue that a framing of identification as identification work underlines the ongoing assessments and actions that comprise identification, as well as ethical tensions in social workers’ identification practice.

Keywords: human trafficking, identification, institutional ethnography, sex work, social work, vulnerability