By IANS,
Washington : Globalisation may have wrought many positive changes in our lives, but it has also helped propagate evils like trafficking and organ trade, according to a new study.
Some of the world’s most disadvantaged people, lured by the dazzle of dollars and a lavish lifestyle, fall prey to traffickers who divest them of their entire savings and send them across international borders with fake documents, the study found.
They often leave their families behind, hoping to send money home, but find themselves ensnared in a lowly job with poor pay and poorer accommodation, on the lookout for the shadow of immigration officials over their shoulders.
The study, by US researchers, suggested there has been a widespread assumption that globalisation can only have a positive impact on individuals and societies around the world.
But researchers Patriya Tansuhaj and Jim McCullough have dismissed this worldview as far too simplistic and unrealistic – one that ignores the flip side of international business to the detriment of legality and ethics.
They suggest that international human trade is essentially the dark side of international business. It is a problem largely ignored by the business research community.
Tansuhaj and McCullough emphasise that trade in human beings is not restricted to individuals trafficked illegally across borders, but involves the sale of body parts and, increasingly, a virtual trade in pornographic images, often elicited under duress.
“International business academicians can no longer leave the understanding of this phenomenon in the hands of political scientists, sociologists and anthropologists,” they asserted.
They cite the example of young Laotians looking West across the Mekong River to Thailand and dreaming of an escape that will give them and their loved ones a new life outside the poverty trap.
Illegal crossings facilitated by criminals who trade in people is common here and across borders in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Findings of the study have appeared in the latest issue of the Journal of Global Business Advancement.