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Post-war settlements and the production of new illegalities: the case of Dayton and people trafficking and prostitution in Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Abstract

This article charts the rise of people smuggling, trafficking and prostitution in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also goes on to point to their transformation in the post-post-war era into ‘cottage’ industries. I argue that the conditions of possibility for their existence are rooted in contradictions inherent in the Dayton Peace Agreement that brought to an end the war of Yugoslav succession. In particular, borrowing Auge’s concept of non-places, I argue that village life has been characterised increasingly by the multiplication of human mobility, the emergence of new forms of inter-ethnic clientship and social relations of estrangement, each of which may enable the industries to thrive. Above all, they are likely to render ineffective the Bosnian state’s attempts at incorporating the public, particularly in rural areas, into the surveillance and detection of people smuggling, trafficking and prostitution.

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Notes

  1. For a clear definition of the distinction between smuggling and trafficking see Klopcic (2004, p. 8). For a discussion of the shortcomings of smuggling and trafficking as both analytical and practical categories see Bhahba and Zard (2006).

  2. The country comprising Serbia and Montenegro following the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992. The union was later dissolved following the Montenegro’s declaration of independence in 2006.

  3. Girls is the term conventionally used in the trafficking literature to refer to female minors under 18 years of age.

  4. The term given to European Union efforts to exclude non-EU nationals, goods and businesses.

  5. The names of all people and villages have been changed to ensure confidentiality.

  6. A pseudonym, but such nightclubs are frequently named after events and institutions related to the post-war settlement in BiH.

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  1. School of Philosophy, Anthropology & Social Enquiry, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Andrew Dawson

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Dawson, A. Post-war settlements and the production of new illegalities: the case of Dayton and people trafficking and prostitution in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dialect Anthropol 32, 123–137 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-008-9057-6

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