REINTEGRATION OR REVICTIMIZATION?: An Analysis of Reintegration Assistance Provided to Victims of Human Trafficking

Abstract: Human trafficking is a crime that extends beyond borders and jurisdictions. International legal standards exist to prevent, suppress, and reintegrate victims into their communities. Once repatriated, survivors of human trafficking require various physical, psychological, and social recovery services, commonly conceptualized as aftercare services. This study intends to examine the sustainability and function of culture and community in aftercare service provision. The study converges on specific reintegration principles utilized to guide and inform policy driving reintegration strategy. Moreover, the study reviews some of the challenges facing the successful reintegration of repatriated survivors of human trafficking. The study was designed to examine a selection of the pre-existing literature and scholarly work surrounding aftercare services. The conceptual framework employed includes developmental theory, intersectionality, and a human-rights-based approach. Data collected from interviews with aftercare practitioners and specialists provide a deeper understanding of the processes, services, and communal elements salient to reintegration. Specifically, this study has reviewed the reintegration motions proposed in the International Organization for Migration’s Reintegration Handbook: Practical Guidance on the Design, Implementation, and Monitoring of Reintegration Assistance (2019). The results present various principles commonly grounding reintegrative strategy, including albeit not limited to: self-sufficiency, economic empowerment, dignity, and sustainability. The defined principles are assessed on their ability to be implemented and interpreted in a diversity of contexts and cultures. The study further converges on the unparalleled importance of community in the reintegrative process. As such, this study attempts to appraise essential standards and indicators used to measure sustainability by stakeholders within the field of reintegration.