Human Trafficking in Germany: The Labor Exploitation at the heart of the FRG’s economic model, German Politics & Society

 Abstract

This article explores human trafficking for labor in Germany's meat industry. Journalists have often associated trafficking with Asia (above all Thailand) and with sex work. In fact, human trafficking for (non-sex) labor is more common globally, and it is endemic in the Federal Republic. The article argues that three features of the German economy make the country highly susceptible to labour trafficking: (1) its export-driven growth model reliant on low wages, (2) the size of its low-wage sector, and (3) its highly price-sensitive consumer market. German consumers want to pay less and less—and ideally nothing—for more and more.