L’immigration et l’ordre public: The Determinants and Projections of French Anti-Human Trafficking Efforts

Abstract

Anti-human trafficking policy in France—a major destination and transit state for trafficking flows in the European Union—exhibits a pattern in which law and order is emphasized at the expense of human rights concerns. This thesis aims to find and evaluate the underlying causes of this pattern in past French policy implementation. Attitudes toward immigration and transnational organized crime are cited in existing literature as a determinant of anti-human trafficking efforts. This author argues that concerns for interior security, namely public order, should also be considered a central determinant of anti-human trafficking efforts. Thus, this study provides a complete account of the roles of both attitudes toward immigration and attitudes toward public order in shaping French anti-human trafficking policy patterns. The paper’s focus then turns to recent, yet-unstudied anti-trafficking policy, including the August 5, 2013 Law and National Action Plan, to extrapolate these two factors’ influence, or lack thereof, on their implementation. This evaluation reveals that though modest improvements are made to bolster human rights-related provisions in formal French legislation, the law and order approach in implementation will ultimately prevail. The study concludes that France’s focus on immediate security threats impedes successful anti-trafficking efforts, and French policymakers must look to protection and prevention-related rights’ concerns to achieve a more effective approach to combatting human trafficking.